CASE DIGEST: CALIFORNIA MANUFACTURING CORPORATION V LAGUESMA

CALIFORNIA MANUFACTURING CORPORATION

LAGUESMA

209 SCRA 609

[June 8, 1992]

NATURE

Petition for review on certiorari with prayer for preliminary injunction and/or temporary restraining order

FACTS

-On May 24, 1990, a petition for certification election among the supervisors of California Manufacturing Corporation (CMC) was filed by the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) California Manufacturing Corporation Supervisors Union Chapter (CALMASUCO)

-In its answer, CMC alleged that the petition for the holding of a certification election should be denied as it is not supported by the required twenty-five percent (25%) of all its supervisors and that a big number of the supposed signatories to the petition are not actually supervisors

-FFW-CALMASUCO in its reply maintained, among others, that under the law, when there is no existing unit yet in a particular bargaining unit at the time a petition for certification election is filed, the 25% rule on the signatories does not apply

-Med-Arbiter ordered that a certification election be conducted among the supervisory employees of California Manufacturing Corporation

-CMC appealed to the Department of Labor and Employment which, however, affirmed the above order

-CMC’s subsequent motion for reconsideration was denied, hence, this petition.

ISSUE

WON the petition for the holding of a certification election should be denied as it is not supported by the required twenty-five percent (25%) of all its supervisors

HELD

-CMC’s insistence on the 25% subscription requirement, is clearly immaterial. The same has been expressly deleted by Section 24 of Republic Act No. 6715 and is presently prescribed only in organized establishments, that is, those with existing bargaining agents.

-Compliance with the said requirement need not even be established with absolute certainty

-The Court has consistently ruled that “even conceding that the statutory requirement of 30% (now 25%) of the labor force asking for a certification election had not been strictly complied with, the Director (now the Med-Arbiter) is still empowered to order that it be held precisely for the purpose of ascertaining which of the contending labor organizations shall be the exclusive collective bargaining agent.

-The requirement then is relevant only when it becomes mandatory to conduct a certification election. In all other instances, the discretion, according to the rulings of this Tribunal, ought to be ordinarily exercised in favor of a petition for certification

Disposition

The petition is DISMISSED for utter lack of merit.