GR L 48367; (January, 1979) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-48367 January 16, 1979
ASSOCIATED TRADE UNIONS-ATU (ATU-KILUSAN), petitioner, vs. HON. CARMELO C. NORIEL, in his capacity as Director of THE BUREAU OF LABOR RELATIONS, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, FEDERATION OF FREE WORKERS (SYNTHETIC MARKETING AND INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION CHAPTER), AND SYNTHETIC MARKETING AND INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION, respondents.
FACTS
The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) filed a petition for certification election among the rank-and-file employees of Synthetic Marketing and Industrial Corporation on September 13, 1977. The petition admitted the existence of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the company and the incumbent union, Associated Trade Unions (ATU-KILUSAN), which was due to expire on October 31, 1977. ATU and the company opposed the petition, arguing it was barred by a renewed CBA they had executed on May 10, 1977—five months and twenty-one days before the old CBA’s expiration—and which was certified by the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR) on October 3, 1977. The Med-Arbiter ordered a certification election, a decision affirmed by BLR Director Carmelo C. Noriel, who also set aside the certification of the renewed CBA for being prematurely executed to avoid the election.
ISSUE
Whether the Med-Arbiter and the BLR Director committed a denial of procedural due process and grave abuse of discretion in ordering a certification election and decertifying the renewed CBA.
RULING
The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, finding no merit in the claims of denial of due process or grave abuse of discretion. The Court emphasized its consistent policy to facilitate certification elections as the democratic mechanism for determining the exclusive bargaining representative. On procedural due process, the Court found no arbitrariness, as the administrative proceedings complied with the requisite fairness, and factual determinations, such as the sufficiency of petition signatures, are generally left to the expertise of labor officials.
On the substantive issue, the Court upheld the decertification of the renewed CBA and the order for an election. The contract-bar rule, which prevents a certification election during the life of a certified CBA, was correctly held inapplicable. The renewed CBA was executed with indecent haste, months before the statutory “freedom period” and the old CBA’s expiry, in an obvious attempt to frustrate the employees’ right to choose their representative. At the time FFW filed its petition on September 13, 1977, the new CBA was not yet effective or a certified bar, as the old CBA was still in force until October 31. To recognize such a premature contract would violate the constitutional right to self-organization. The certification election was ordered to proceed.