CASE DIGEST: CELINE MARKETING VS CA (RUIZ)

CELINE MARKETING

VS

CA (RUIZ)

205 SCRA 849

February 4, 1992

NATURE

Petition for certioari

FACTS

-DOLE Undersecretary Laguesma ordered the holding of a certification election among its rank-and-file employees, as prayed for in a petition filed by the Confederation of Filipino Workers. Such petition was amended to include all the rank-and-file employees of the petitioner in its outlets at Landmark-Makati; Shoppesville-Greenhills; SM-North, etc. comprising more or less 100 employees.

-Celine Mktg moved to dismiss the petition on the grounds that the CFW had not been authorized by a majority of the rank-and file employees, and that it failed to submit a copy of the charter certificate issued to the local union. At the hearing before the Labor Arbiter, CFW submitted a xerox copy of the charter certificate issued to its local union.

-The petitioner moved to strike it from the records for non-production of the original and for lack of proof that the organizational documents of the union had been filed with the Bureau of Labor Relations.

-The Med-Arbiter dismissed the petition on those grounds.

-The union appealed the order to the DOLE Sec which was granted.

-Hence, this petition for certiorari.

ISSUE

WON the private respondent failed to comply with the mandatory requirements in Sec 3, Rule II, Book V of the Omnibus Rules of LC

HELD

NO

Ratio While it may be true that the petition for certification election did not carry the authorization of a majority of the rank-and file employees of the petitioner, their consent is not necessary when the bargaining unit that the union seeks torepresent, is still unorganized. The petition for certification election may be filed by any union, not by the employees. Reasoning Thus, Art 257 of the Labor Code, as amended by R.A. 6715, provides: “In any establishment where there is no certified bargaining agent, a certification election shall automatically be conducted by the Med-Arbiter upon the filing of a petition by a legitimate labor organization.”

-The law assumes that the union is the real party in interest in a petition for certification election. Anyway, the certification election itself is the appropriate forum for the employees to express their choice of a bargaining representative or none at all.

Disposition

Finding no grave abuse of discretion in the Undersecretary’s resolution, the petition for certiorari is DISMISSED. MANDATORY ELECTION