GR No.

102130 July 26, 1944

GOLDEN FARMS VS SECRETARY OF LABOR AND PFL

FACTS:

Petitioner Golden Farms, Inc., is a corporation engaged in the production and marketing
of bananas for export. On February 27, 1992, private respondent Progressive Federation of
Labor (PFL) filed a petition before the Med-Arbiter praying for the holding of a certification
election among the monthly paid office and technical rank-and-file employees of petitioner
Golden Farms. Petitioner moved to dismiss claiming that PFL failed to show that it organized a
chapter within the petitioner establishment, that there was already an existing CBA between
the rank and file employees represented by NFL and petitioner, and that the employees
represented by PFL are disqualified by the courts.

PFL countered that the monthly-paid office workers and technical employees should be
allowed because they were expressly excluded from the coverage of the CBA between
Petitioner and NFL. Petitioner argued that the subject employees shoull have joined the
existing CBA if they are not managerial employees. On April 18,1991, the Med-Arbiter ordered
the conduct of the certification elections. Petitioner appealed to the Secretary of Labor which
the LabSec denies the appeal for lack of merit.

ISSUE:

WON the Monthly Paid rank and file employee can constitute a bargaining unit separate from
the existing bargaining units of its daily-paid rank and file employees

HELD: Wherefore, Petition dismissed for lack of merit.

RATIO:

Yes, the Monthly Paid office and technical rank and file employee of the petitioner enjoy
constitutional rights to self organization and collective bargaining. The duties of the monthly
paid employees primarily administrative and clerical which is of different nature from daily paid
employees whose main work is the cultivation of bananas. To be sure, the monthly paid group
have even been excluded from the bargaining unit of the daily paid rank and file employees.

In the case of UP vs Ferrer-Calleja, the SC sanctioned the formation of 2 separate

bargaining units within the establishment. Finally, the SC note that it was Petitioner company
that filed the motion to dismiss the petition for election violating the general rule that the
employer has no standing to question a certification election since this is the so that the
employer has no standing to question a certification election since this is the sole concerns of
the workers (Bystander Rule)

Our decision in Golden Farms, Inc., vs. Honorable Pura Ferrer-Calleja, op. cit., does not pose any obstacle
in holding a certification election among petitioner's monthly paid rank-and-file employees. The issue
brought to fore in that case was totally different, i.e., whether or not petitioner's confidential employees,
considering the nature of their work, should be included in the bargaining unit of the daily paid rank-and-file
employees. In the case at bench, the monthly paid rank-and-file employees of petitioner are
being separated as a bargaining unit from its daily paid rank-and-file employees, on the ground that they
have different interest to protect. The principle of res judicata is,therefore, inapplicable.