G.R. No. L-22753 December 18, 1967
JESUS RAMOS, ET AL., petitioners, vs. COURT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, RICE AND CORN ADMINISTRATION (RCA), and NARIC WORKERS’ UNION, respondents.

FACTS

Petitioners, 147 workers and employees (some former NARIC employees, others newly employed by RCA), filed a petition with the Court of Industrial Relations (CIR) on February 9, 1963, in their individual capacities. They sought to compel the Rice and Corn Administration (RCA) to comply with a partial judgment rendered by the CIR on February 16, 1953, in a prior case (CIR Case No. 746-V) involving the National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC). That judgment directed NARIC to pay 25% additional compensation for overtime, night work, and work on Sundays and legal holidays. Petitioners prayed that RCA be required to pay this obligation starting June 1962, when NARIC was abolished and RCA was created under Republic Act No. 3452. The Naric Workers’ Union (NWU) intervened and moved to dismiss on the ground of pendency of another action (CIR Case No. 746-V (21)), a similar petition filed by the union ten days later. The CIR, through Associate Judge Arsenio I. Martinez, dismissed the petition on December 6, 1963, based on pendency of another action. The CIR en banc affirmed this dismissal on February 27, 1964. Petitioners appealed to the Supreme Court.

ISSUE

Whether the Rice and Corn Administration (RCA) is liable, from the date of its creation on June 14, 1962, for the continuing obligation of the abolished National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC) to pay 25% additional compensation for overtime, night work, and work on Sundays and legal holidays, as mandated by the CIR’s partial judgment of February 16, 1953.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of the petition, but on a ground different from that relied upon by the CIR. The Court held that petitioners have no cause of action against RCA for the claimed additional compensation. The liability under the 1953 CIR judgment, which was based on an agreement with NARIC, is inconsistent with the provisions of Republic Act No. 3452, which created RCA. RCA is a government instrumentality under the Office of the President, performing governmental functions to implement a policy of price stabilization, not a corporation for profit. Its employees are governed by civil service rules, the WAPCO salary plan, and Commonwealth Act No. 246 (the Budget Act). Under the Budget Act, additional compensation for overtime for government employees is not a matter of right but may be paid only when authorized by the President from specific appropriations. The transfer of liabilities from NARIC to RCA under Section 13 of R.A. 3452 is limited to those “not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act.” Since the claimed obligation is inconsistent with the legal regime governing RCA employees, it was not transferred to and cannot be enforced against RCA. Therefore, petitioners are not entitled to recover the additional compensation prayed for.