TAGAYTAY HIGHLANDS INTERNATIONAL GOLF CLUB INCORPORATED VS TAGAYTAY HIGHLANDS EMPLOYEES UNION-PGTWO 395 SCRA 638 (2003)

TAGAYTAY HIGHLANDS INTERNATIONAL GOLF CLUB INCORPORATED

VS

TAGAYTAY HIGHLANDS EMPLOYEES UNION-PGTWO
395 SCRA 638 (2003)

After a certificate of registration is issued to a union, its legal personality cannot be subject to collateral attack and may be questioned only in an independent petition for cancellation.

Respondent Tagaytay Highlands Employees Union (THEU)-Philippine Transport and General Workers Organization (PTGWO), a legitimate labor organization representing majority of the rank-and-file employees of petitioner Tagaytay Highlands International Golf Club Inc. (THIGCI), filed a petition for certification election before the DOLE Mediation-Arbitration Unit.

THIGCI opposed the petition of THEU on the ground that out of 192 signatories to the petition, only 71 were actual rank-and-file employees of THIGCI. The others were supervisors, resigned, terminated, AWOL and employees, while some others are employees from a different corporation.

The DOLE Med-Arbiter issued an order to the hold the certification election among the rank-and-file employees of THIGCI. On appeal, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Undersecretary and the Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed Med Arbiter’s decision and ordered that supervisory employees and non-employees could simply be removed from the roster of rank-and-file membership.

ISSUE:
Whether or not the CA erred in holding that supervisory employees and non-employees could simply be removed from THEU’s roster of rank-and-file membership instead of resolving the legitimacy of union’s status

HELD:
After a certificate of registration is issued to a union, its legal personality cannot be subject to collateral attack. It may be questioned only in an independent petition for cancellation.

The grounds for cancellation of union registration are provided for under Article 239 of the Labor Code, two of the grounds are 1.) Misrepresentation, false statement or fraud in connection with the adoption or ratification of the constitution and by-laws or amendments thereto, the minutes of ratification, and the list of members who took part in the ratification; 2.) Misrepresentation, false statements or fraud in connection with the election of officers, minutes of the election of officers, the list of voters, or failure to subject these documents together with the list of the newly elected/appointed officers and their postal addresses within thirty (30) days from election;

The inclusion in a union of disqualified employees is not among the grounds for cancellation, unless such inclusion is due to misrepresentation, false statement or fraud under the circumstances enumerated in Sections (a) and (c) of Article 239 of above-quoted Article 239 of the Labor Code.

THEU, having been validly issued a certificate of registration, should be considered to have already acquired juridical personality which may not be assailed collaterally.