Professional Documents
Culture Documents
remedies, and the danger of a failure of justice without it, that must
usually determine the propriety of the writ. (Chan vs. Secretary of
Justice, 548 SCRA 337 [2008])
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* SECOND DIVISION.
436
437
the BLR. Far from it. After a labor organization has filed the necessary
registration documents, it becomes mandatory for the BLR to check if the
requirements under Art. 234 of the Labor Code have been sedulously
complied with. If the union’s application is infected by falsification and like
serious irregularities, especially those appearing on the face of the
application and its attachments, a union should be denied recognition as a
legitimate labor organization. Prescinding from these considerations, the
issuance to the Union of Certificate of Registration No. RO300-00-02-UR-
0003 necessarily implies that its application for registration and the
supporting documents thereof are prima facie free from any vitiating
irregularities.
PETITION for review on certiorari of the decision and resolution of
the Court of Appeals.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.
Legal Services Philippines for petitioner.
Ernesto R. Arellano for private respondent.
VELASCO, JR., J.:
438
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“Viewed in the light of all the foregoing, this office hereby grants the
petition. WHEREFORE, this office resolved to CANCEL Certificate of
Registration No. [RO300-00-02-UR-0003] dated 28 February 2000 of
respondent S.S. Ventures Labor Union-Independent.
So Ordered.”7
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440
I.
PUBLIC RESPONDENT ACTED RECKLESSLY AND IMPRUDENTLY,
GRAVELY ABUSED ITS DISCRETION AND EXCEEDED ITS
JURISDICTION IN DISREGARDING THE SUBSTANTIAL AND
OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE ADDUCED BY THE PETITIONER
SHOWING THAT RESPONDENT UNION
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441
442
III.
PUBLIC RESPONDENT ACTED RECKLESSLY AND IMPRUDENTLY,
GRAVELY ABUSED ITS DISCRETION AND EXCEEDED ITS
JURISDICTION IN INVOKING THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO
SELF-ORGANIZATION AND ILO CONVENTION NO. 87 TO JUSTIFY
THE MASSIVE FRAUD, MISREPRESENTATION, MISSTATEMENTS
AND FORGERY COMMITTED BY THE RESPONDENT UNION.13
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The BLR, based on its official records, answered the poser in the
affirmative. Wrote the BLR:
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446
“It is imperative to look into the records of respondent union with this
Bureau pursuant to our role as a central registry of union and CBA records
under Article 231 of the Labor Code and Rule XVII of the rules
implementing Book V of the Labor Code, as amended x x x.
In its union records on file with this Bureau, respondent union submitted
the names of [542] members x x x. This number easily complied with the
20% requirement, be it 1,928 or 2,202 employees in the establishment. Even
subtracting the 82 employees from 542 leaves 460 union members, still
within 440 or 20% of the maximum total of 2,202 rank-and-file
employees.
Whatever misgivings the petitioner may have with regard to the 82
dismissed employees is better addressed in the inclusion-exclusion
proceedings during a pre-election conference x x x. The issue surrounding
the involvement of the 82 employees is a matter of membership or voter
eligibility. It is not a ground to cancel union registration.” (Emphasis
added.)
The bare fact that three signatures twice appeared on the list of
those who participated in the organizational meeting would not, to
our mind, provide a valid reason to cancel Certificate of Registration
No. RO300-00-02-UR-0003. As the Union tenably explained
without rebuttal from Ventures, the double entries are no more than
“normal human error,” effected without malice. Even the labor
arbiter who found for Ventures sided with the Union in its
explanation on the absence of malice.22
The cancellation of a union’s registration doubtless has an
impairing dimension on the right of labor to self-organization.
Accordingly, we can accord concurrence to the following apt
observation of the BLR: “[F]or fraud and misrepresentation [to be
grounds for] cancellation of union registration under Article 239 [of
the Labor Code], the nature of the fraud and misrepresentation must
be grave and compelling enough to vitiate the consent of a majority
of union members.”23
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22 Id., at p. 127.
23 Id., at p. 152.
447
In its Comment, the Union points out that for almost seven (7)
years following the filing of its petition, no certification election has
yet been conducted among the rank-and-file employees. If this be
the case, the delay has gone far enough and can no longer be
allowed to continue. The CA is right when it said that Ventures
should not interfere in the certification election by actively and
persistently opposing the certification election of the Union. A
certification election is exclusively the concern of employees and
the employer lacks the legal personality to challenge it.24 In fact,
jurisprudence frowns on the employer’s interference in a
certification election for such interference unduly creates the
impression that it intends to establish a company union.25
Ventures’ allegations on forum shopping and the procedural lapse
supposedly committed by the BLR in allowing a belatedly filed
motion for reconsideration need not detain us long. Suffice it to state
that this Court has consistently ruled that the application of technical
rules of procedure in labor cases may be relaxed to serve the
demands of substantial justice.26 So it must be in this case.
WHEREFORE, the petition is DENIED. The Decision and
Resolution dated October 20, 2003 and January 19, 2004,
respectively, of the CA are AFFIRMED. S.S. Ventures Labor Union
shall remain in the roster of legitimate labor organizations, unless it
has in the meantime lost its legitimacy for causes set forth in the
Labor Code. Costs against petitioner.
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SO ORDERED.
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** Additional member as per Special Order No. 509 dated July 1, 2008.