2011 Bar Exams MCQs – Labor Law

A foreign guest in a luxury hotel complained that he lost certain valuable items in his hotel room.  An investigation by the hotel pointed to two roomboys as the most probable thieves.  May the management invoke “loss of confidence” as a just cause for dismissing the roomboys?

When an employee works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a legal holiday falling on his rest day, which of the following formulas do you use to compute for his day's wage on that day?

The union filed a notice of strike due to a bargaining deadlock. But, because the Secretary of Labor assumed jurisdiction over the dispute, the strike was averted. Meanwhile, the employer observed that the union engaged in a work slowdown. Contending that the slowdown was in fact an illegal strike, the employer dismissed all the union officers. The union president complained of illegal dismissal because the employer should first prove his part in the slowdown. Is the union president correct?

Pol requested Obet, a union officer and concurrently chairman of the company's Labor-Management Council, to appeal to the company for a recomputation of Pol’s overtime pay. After 5 p.m., his usual knock-off time, Obet spent two hours at the Personnel Office, reconciling the differing computations of Pol’s overtime. Are those two hours compensable?

The union’s by-laws provided for burial assistance to the family of a member who dies.  When Carlos, a member, died, the union denied his wife's claim for burial assistance, compelling her to hire a lawyer to pursue the claim.  Assuming the wife wins the case, may she also claim attorney's fees?

The existing collective bargaining unit in Company X includes some fifty “secretaries” and “clerks” who routinely record and monitor reports required by their department heads. Believing that these secretaries and clerks should not be union members because of the confidential nature of their work, the management discontinued deducting union dues from their salaries. Is the management’s action legal?

Jose Lovina had been member of the board of directors and Executive Vice President of San Jose Corporation for 12 years. In 2008, the San Jose stockholders did not elect him to the board of directors nor did the board reappoint him as Executive Vice President. He filed an illegal dismissal complaint with a Labor Arbiter. Contending that the Labor Arbiter had no jurisdiction over the case since Lovina was not an employee, the company filed a motion to dismiss. Should the motion be granted?

The CBA for the period January 2007 to December 2009 granted the employees a P40 per day increase with the understanding that it is creditable as compliance to any future wage order. Subsequently, the regional wage board increased by P20 the minimum wage in the employer’s area beginning January 2008. The management claims that the CBA increase may be considered compliance even if the Wage Order itself said that “CBA increase is not creditable as compliance to the Wage Order.” Is the management's claim valid?

A sugar mill in Laguna, capitalized at P300 million, suffered a P10,000.00 loss last year. This year it dismissed three young female employees who gave birth in the last three years. In its termination report to DOLE, the sugar mill gave as reason for the dismissal “retrenchment because of losses.” Did it violate any law?

The employees’ union in San Joaquin Enterprise continued their strike despite a return to work order from the Secretary of Labor. Because of this defiance, the employer dismissed the strikers. But the Labor Arbiter declared as illegal the dismissal of those whose commission of unlawful acts had not been proved. They were ordered immediately reinstated. The employer refused, however, to reinstate them on the ground that the rule on immediate reinstatement applies only to terminations due to just or authorized causes. Is the employer’s refusal justified?

Sampaguita Company wants to embark on a retrenchment program in view of declining sales. It identified five employees that it needed to separate. The human resource manager seems to recall that she has to give the five employees and the DOLE a 30-day notice but she feels that she can give a shorter notice. What will you advise her?

The employees’ rights to organize and to bargain collectively are means of exercising the broader right to participate in policy or decision-making processes. The employees' right to participate in policy and decision making processes is available

In the case of a househelper, reinstatement is not a statutory relief for unjust dismissal because of the confidentiality of his or her job. Instead, the househelper shall be paid

Under the Labor Code, its provisions on working conditions, including the eight-hour work day rule, do not apply to domestic helpers. Does it follow from this that a domestic helper's workday is not limited by law?

Reach-All, a marketing firm with operating capital of P100,000, supplied sales persons to pharmaceutical companies to promote their products in hospitals and doctors' offices. Reach-All trained these sales persons in the art of selling but it is the client companies that taught them the pharmacological qualities of their products. Reach-All’s roving supervisors monitored, assessed, and supervised their work performance. Reach-All directly paid their salaries out of contractor's fees it received. Under the circumstances, can the sales persons demand that they be absorbed as employees of the pharmaceutical firms?

Tower Placement Agency supplies manpower to Lucas Candy Factory to do work usually necessary for work done at its factory. After working there for more than two years under the factory manager’s supervision, the workers demanded that Lucas extend to them the same employment benefits that their directly hired workers enjoyed. Is their demand valid?

The meal time (lunch break) for the dining crew in Glorious Restaurant is either from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. or from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., with pay. But the management wants to change the mealtime to 11: a.m. to 12 noon or 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., without pay. Will the change be legal?

The State has a policy of promoting collective bargaining and voluntary arbitration as modes of settling labor disputes. To this end, the voluntary arbitrator’s jurisdiction has not been limited to interpretation and implementation of collective bargaining agreements and company personnel policies. It may extend to “all other labor disputes,” provided

Quiel, a househelper in the Wilson household since 2006, resigned from his job for several reasons. One reason was the daily 12-hour workday without any rest day. When he left his job he had unpaid wages totaling P13,500.00 which his employer refused to pay. He wants to claim this amount though he is not interested in getting back his job. Where should he file his claim?

Philworld, a POEA-licensed agency, recruited and deployed Mike with its principal, Delta Construction Company in Dubai for a 2-year project job. After he had worked for a year, Delta and Philworld terminated for unknown reason their agency agreement. Delta stopped paying Mike's salary. When Mike returned to the Philippines, he sued both Philworld and Delta for unpaid salary and damages. May Philworld, the agency, be held liable?

Melissa, a coffee shop worker of 5 months, requested her employer for 5 days' leave with pay to attend to the case that she filed against her husband for physical assault two weeks earlier. May the employer deny her request for leave with pay?

A golf and country club outsourced the jobs in its food and beverage department and offered the affected employees an early retirement package of 1 ½ month’s pay for each year of service. The employees who accepted the package executed quitclaims. Thereafter, employees of a service contractor performed their jobs. Subsequently, the management contracted with other job contractors to provide other services like the maintenance of physical facilities, golf operations, and administrative and support services. Some of the separated employees who signed quitclaims later filed complaints for illegal dismissal. Were they validly dismissed?

Venus Department Store decided to contract out the security services that its 10 direct-hired full-time security guards provided.  The company paid the men separation pay.  With this move, the Store was able to cut costs and secure efficient outside professional security services.  But the terminated security guards complained of illegal dismissal, claiming that regular jobs such as theirs could not be contracted out.  Will their complaint prosper?

Llanas Corporation and Union X, the certified bargaining agent of its employees, concluded a CBA for the period January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2004. But, long before the CBA expired, members of Union Y, the minority union, showed dissatisfaction with the CBA under the belief that Union X was a company union. Agitated by its members, Union Y filed a petition for a Certification Election on December 1, 2002. Will the petition prosper?

Celia, an OFW that Moonshine Agency recruited and deployed, died in Syria, her place of work. Her death was not work-related, it appearing that she had been murdered. Insisting that she committed suicide, the employer and the agency took no action to ascertain the cause of death and treated the matter as a “closed case.” The worker's family sued both the employer and the agency for moral and exemplary damages. May such damages be awarded?

Under the Limited Portability law, funds from the GSIS and the SSS maybe transferred for the benefit of a worker who transfers from one system to the other. For this purpose, overlapping periods of membership shall be

The Secretary of Labor and Employment or his duly authorized representative, including labor regulations officers, shall have access to employer's records and premises during work hours. Why is this statement an inaccurate statement of the law?

Mario, an expert aircon technician, owns and manages a small aircon repair shop with little capital. He employs one full-time and two part-time technicians. When they do repair work in homes or offices, their clients do not tell them how to do their jobs since they are experts in what they do. The shop is shabby, merely rented, and lies in a small side street. Mario and the other technicians regard themselves as informal partners. They receive no regular salary and only earn commissions from service fees that clients pay. To what categories of workers do they fall?

The employer must observe both substantive and procedural due process when dismissing an employee. If procedural due process is not observed, the dismissal will be regarded as

Of the four grounds mentioned below, which one has been judicially affirmed as justification for an employee’s refusal to follow an employer’s transfer order?

The negotiating panels for the CBA of X Company established a rule that only employees of the company will seat in each panel. In the next session, the management panel objected to the presence of the union counsel. Still the negotiation proceeded. At the next session, the management panel again objected to the presence of the union counsel as a non-observance of the “no outsider” rule. The negotiation nonetheless proceeded. Does the management panel's objection to the presence of the union counsel constitute unfair labor practice through bad-faith bargaining?

A group of 15 regular rank-and-file employees of Bay Resort formed and registered an independent union. On hearing of this, the management called the officers to check who the union members were. It turned out that the members included the probationary staff, casuals, and the employees of the landscape contractor. The management contends that inclusion of non-regulars and employees of a contractor makes the union’s composition inappropriate and its registration invalid. Is this correct?

In industrial homework, the homeworker does at his home the work that his employer requires of him, using employer-supplied materials. It differs from regular factory work in the sense that

The management and Union X in Atisan Mining entered into a CBA for 1997 to 2001. After 6 months, a majority of the members of Union X formed Union Y and sought management recognition. The latter responded by not dealing with either union. But, when the CBA’s economic provisions had to be renegotiated towards the end of the term of the CBA, the management chose to negotiate with Union Y, the newer union. Thus, Union X which negotiated the existing CBA charged the company with unfair labor practice (ULP). The company argued that it committed no unfair labor practice since the supposed violation had nothing to do with economic provisions of the CBA. Is the management right?

X Company’s CBA grants each employee a 14th month year-end bonus. Because the company is in financial difficulty, its head wants to negotiate the discontinuance of such bonus. Would such proposal violate the “nondiminution rule” in the Labor Code?

Which of the following acts is NOT part of the regulatory and visitorial power of the Secretary of Labor and Employment over recruitment and placement agencies? The power to

Pedring, Daniel, and Paul were employees of Delibakery who resigned from their jobs but wanted to file money claims for unpaid wages and 13th month pay. Pedring’s claim totals P20,000.00, Daniel’s P3,000.00, and Paul’s P22,000.00. Daniel changed his mind and now also wants reinstatement because he resigned only upon the instigation of Pedring and Paul. Where should they file their claims?

In computing for 13th month pay, Balagtas Company used as basis both the employee’s regular base pay and the cash value of his unused vacation and sick leaves. After two and a half years, it announced that it had made a mistake and was discontinuing such practice. Is the management action legally justified?

During the CBA negotiation the management panel proposed a redefinition of the “rank-and-file” bargaining unit to exclude “HR Specialist” in the human resource department and “Analyst” in the research and development department. The union panel objected since those affected have already been included in the bargaining unit covered by the existing CBA and so could no longer be excluded. Is the union correct in insisting that their exclusion would amount to bad faith on the part of the management panel?

Albert and four others signed employment contracts with Reign Publishers from January 1 to March 31, 2011 to help clear up encoding backlogs. By first week of April 2011, however, they remained at work. On June 30 Reign’s manager notified them that their work would end that day. Do they have valid reason to complain?

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved a merger that allowed Broad Bank to absorb the assets and liabilities of EBank. Broad Bank also absorbed EBank’s rank-and-file employees without change in tenure, salary, and benefits. Broad Bank was unionized but EBank was not. The Broad Bank bargaining union requested the management to implement the union security clause in their CBA by requiring the ex-EBank employees to join the union. Does the union security clause in the Broad Bank CBA bind the ex-EBank employees?