Electromat v Lagunzad (Labor Relations)

ELECTROMAT MANUFACTURING and RECORDING CORPORATION v LAGUNZAD G. R. No. 172699 July 27, 2011  

Validity of DO 40‐03  

FACTS:  

The private respondent Nagkakaisang Samahan ng Manggagawa ng Electromat‐Wasto (union), a charter affiliate of the Workers Advocates for Struggle, Transformation and Organization (WASTO), applied for registration with the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR). The BLR thereafter issued the union a Certification of Creation of Local Chapter (equivalent to the certificate of registration of an independent union), pursuant to Department Order No. (D.O.) 40‐03.[4]  

On October 1, 2003, the petitioner Electromat Manufacturing and Recording Corporation (company) filed a petition for cancellation of the union's registration certificate, for the union's failure to comply with Article 234 of the Labor Code. It argued that D.O. 40‐03 is an unconstitutional diminution of the Labor Code's union registration requirements under Article 234. Specifically, it assails as unconstitutional Section 2(E), Rule III of D.O. 40‐03 which provides:  

The report of creation of a chartered local shall be accompanied by a charter certificate issued by the federation or national union indicating the creation or establishment of the chartered local.   

DECISION OF LOWER COURTS: * DOLE: dismissed the petition. * BLR Director: affirmed the decision of the DOLE. * CA: affirmed BLR Director.  

ISSUE: WON the Department order is constitutional or whether D.O. 40‐03 is a valid exercise of the rule‐making power of the DOLE.  

APPLICABLE LAWS: Article 234 states:  

ART. 234. Requirements of Registration.[13] Any applicant labor organization, association or group of unions or workers shall acquire legal personality and shall be entitled to the rights and privileges granted by law to legitimate labor organizations upon issuance of the certificate of registration based on the following requirements:  

(a)    Fifty pesos (P50.00) registration fee;  

(b)   The names of its officers, their addresses, the principal address of the labor organization, the minutes of the organizational meetings and the list of the workers who participated in such meetings;  

(c)    The names of all its members comprising at least twenty percent (20%) of all the employees in the bargaining unit where it seeks to operate;  

(d)   If the applicant union has been in existence for one or more years, copies of its annual financial reports; and  

(e)    Four (4) copies of the constitution and by‐laws of the applicant union, minutes of its adoption or ratification, and the list of the members who participated in it.  

RULING: YES, constitutional.  

D.O. 40‐03 represents an expression of the government's implementing policy on trade unionism.  It builds upon the old rules by further simplifying the requirements for the establishment of locals or chapters. As in D.O. 9, we see nothing contrary to the law or the Constitution in the adoption by the Secretary of Labor and Employment of D.O. 40‐03 as this department order is consistent with the intent of the  

government to encourage the affiliation of a local union with a federation or national union to enhance the local's bargaining power. If changes were made at all, these were those made to recognize the distinctions made in the law itself between federations and their local chapters, and independent unions; local chapters seemingly have lesser requirements because they and their members are deemed to be direct members of the federation to which they are affiliated, which federations are the ones subject to the strict registration requirements of the law.