Digest: SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION (MANDAUE PACKAGING PRODUCTS PLANTS) vs. MANDAUE PACKING PRODUCTS PLANTS-SAN PACKAGING PRODUCTS –SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION MONTHLIES RANK-AND-FILE UNION – FFW (MPPP-SMPP-SMAMRFU-FFW)

G.R. No. 152356. August 16, 2005

SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION (MANDAUE PACKAGING PRODUCTS PLANTS) vs. MANDAUE PACKING PRODUCTS PLANTS-SAN PACKAGING PRODUCTS –SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION MONTHLIES RANK-AND-FILE UNION – FFW (MPPP-SMPP-SMAMRFU-FFW),

TINGA, J.:

 

FACTS:

 

Respondent Free Workers (FFW), filed a petition for certification election with the DOLE Regional Office No. VII. In the petition, respondent stated that it sought to be certified and to represent the permanent rank-and-file monthly paid employees of the petitioner.

 

Petitioner filed a motion to dismiss the petition for certification election on the sole ground that herein respondent is not listed or included in the roster of legitimate labor organizations based on the certification issued by DOLE Regional Office.

 

Ptitioner reiterated that respondent was not a legitimate labor organization at the time of the filing of the petition. Petitioner also propounded that contrary to respondent’s objectives of establishing an organization representing rank-and-file employees, two of respondent’s officers, namely Vice-President Emannuel L. Rosell and Secretary Bathan, were actually supervisory employees. In support of this allegation, petitioner attached various documents evidencing the designation of these two officers in supervisory roles, as well as their exercise of various supervisory functions.9 Petitioner cited Article 245 of the Labor Code, which provides that supervisory employees shall not be eligible for membership in a labor organization of the rank-and-file employees.10

 

Issue: Whether or Not Rank and File and Supervisors may be a member of same union.

 

Held:

 

We rule in the negative.

 

Under the law, a managerial employee is "one who is vested with powers or prerogatives to lay down and execute management policies and/or to hire, transfer, suspend, layoff, recall, discharge, assign or discipline employees." A supervisory employee is "one who, in the interest of the employer, effectively recommends managerial actions if the exercise of such recommendatory authority is not merely routinary or clerical in nature but requires the use of independent judgment.’" Finally, "all employees not falling within the definition of managerial or supervisory employee are considered rank-and-file employees". It is also well-settled that the actual functions of an employee, not merely his job title, are determinative in classifying such employee as managerial, supervisory or rank and file.

X x x x

We take administrative notice of the realities in union organizing, during which the organizers must take their chances, oftentimes unaware of the fine distinctions between managerial, supervisory and rank and file employees. The grounds for cancellation of union registration are not meant to be applied automatically, but indeed with utmost discretion. Where a remedy short of cancellation is available, that remedy should be preferred. In this case, no party will be prejudiced if Bathan were to be excluded from membership in the union. The vacancy he will thus create can then be easily filled up through the succession provision of appellee union’s constitution and by-laws. What is important is that there is an unmistakeable intent of the members of appellee union to exercise their right to organize. We cannot impose rigorous restraints on such right if we are to give meaning to the protection to labor and social justice clauses of the Constitution.