Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
College of Law
Submitted by:
Jose Nikko M. Mencidor
Submitted to:
Atty. Josefe Sorrera-Ty
PALE Professor
1. WHETHER
VICTOR
CAN
CONTINUE
TO
ADVISE
JACLYN
ADVERSELY
AFFECTED
IN
THE
MANAGEMENT-
circumventing the rights of the employees under special laws or under valid
agreements, the Supreme Court will uphold them. (San Miguel Brewery Sales vs Ople)
The employers obligation to give his workers just compensation and treatment
carries with it the corollary right to expect from the workers adequate work, diligence,
and good conduct.
The employer has a prerogative to instill discipline in his employees and to
impose reasonable penalties, including dismissal, on erring employees pursuant to
company rules and regulations.
A company has the right to dismiss its erring employees if only as a measure of
self-protection against acts inimical to its interest. (Filipro, Inc vs NLRC)
Concededly, the employers right to freely select or discharge his employees is
subject to regulation by the State basically in the exercise of its paramount police power.
But the employer cannot be legally compelled to continue with the employment of a
person who admittedly was guilty of misfeasance towards his employer and whose
continuance in the service of the latter is patently inimical to his interest. The law in
protecting the rights of the labourer authorizes neither oppression nor self-destruction of
the employer. (Ibid)
Misconduct is improper wrong conduct. It is the transgression of some
established and definite rule of action, a forbidden act, a dereliction of duty, wilful in
character, and implies wrongful intent and not mere error in judgement. The misconduct
to be serious must be of such grave and aggravated character and not merely trivial or
unimportant. Such misconduct, however serious, must, nevertheless be in connection
with the employees work to constitute just cause for his separation.
The employer may dismiss an employee if the former has reasonable grounds to
believe, or to entertain the moral conviction, that the latter is responsible for the
misconduct and the nature of his participation therein renders him absolutely unworthy
of the trust and confidence demanded by his position. (Ibid)
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allowed to seek the intervention of the court, it is a precondition that he should have
availed of all the means of administrative processes afforded him. Hence, if a remedy
within the administrative machinery can still be resorted to by giving the administrative
officer concerned every opportunity to decide on a matter that comes within his
jurisdiction, then such remedy should be exhausted first before the courts judicial power
can be sought.
In this case, a grievance procedure culled from the CBA should be followed in
order to resolve the conflict between the employer and employee subject to disciplinary
action. The Labor Code provides that, It is the policy of the Stateto promote and
emphasize the primacy of free collective bargaining and negotiations, including
voluntary arbitration, mediation and conciliation, as modes of settling labor or industrial
disputes.
Professor Fernandez quotes Bernstein :
It is of vital importance that the interrelationship of the two procedures-grievance
and arbitration-be borne in mind by those who study and practice arbitration. A grievance
procedure in which few disputes are settled inevitably overloads arbitral machinery.
Arbitration procedures and awards that undermine the grievance machinery by
permitting serious disregard of its prescribed procedures can invite more arbitration and
fewer settlements by negotiation. Or arbitration that encourages overemphasis on
technical procedural requirements will thwart settlement on the merits so that pressure
builds for resort to self-help. Obviously the balance to be struck requires judgment, preeminently on the part of the representatives of unions and management, who have initial
and primary responsibility. How they discharge their functions may be affected by what
arbitrators do. Arbitration is a powerful tool that can, on occasion, send reverberations
through the larger organism, the grievance procedure and shop office relations.
The choice of an arbitrator must take into account the following general
considerations: 1) field of choice, or the problem of availability of desired persons; 2)
Honesty must always still be the lawyers best virtue. Lawyers must deal with
their clients, brother lawyers, courts of justice and the public with honesty. Honesty is an
essential for every lawyer to retain his standing as a member of the bar. Lawyers must
always conduct themselves in their professional and non-professional life with good
moral character and without deception. Lawyers should not be instigators of
controversies but a mediator for concord and conciliator for compromise. Canon 1,
Rule 1.014 provides that, A lawyer shall encourage his clients to avoid, end or
settle a controversy if it will admit of a fair settlement.
The nature of a compromise agreement is such that a party must give up some
of the rights that he has, in consideration of the same act on the part of the other side.
(Jesalva, et al vs Bautista, et al)
A compromise is as often the better part of justice as prudence is part of valor
and a lawyer who encourages compromise is no less the clients champion in
settlement out of court than he is the clients champion in the battle in court.
Whenever the controversy will admit of fair judgment, the client should be
advised to avoid or to end the litigation. This will save the client from additional
expenses and help prevent the clogging of docket. (Pajares vs Abad Santos)
It is the lawyers duty to see to it that justice be accorded to all without
discrimination. Legal aid is not a matter of charity. It is a means for the correction of
social imbalance that may and often do lead to injustice.
Compromise agreements involving labor standards cases must be reduced to
writing and signed in the presence of the Regional Director or his duly authorized
representative (Atilano v. De la Cruz)
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Article 1878 of the New Civil Code provides that a Special Power of Authority is
required before an agent can be authorized to enter into a compromise. It reads:
Art. 1878. Special powers of attorney are necessary in the following
cases:
xxx xxx xxx
(3) To compromise, to submit questions to arbitration, to renounce the
right to appeal from a judgment, to waive objections to the venue of an
action or to abandon a prescription already acquired.
independent union to represent them. Thus, after the members learned of the
misrepresentation, and after a majority of them disaffiliated themselves from the union
and formed another one, a new certification election should be held to enable them to
express their true will. (DHL Philippines Corporation United Rank and File AssociationFederation of Free Workers vs Buklod ng Manggagawa ng DHL Philippines
Corporation)
atmosphere of freedom and mutual respect, disrupt industrial peace and hinder the
promotion of healthy and stable labor-management relations.
Consequently, unfair labor practices are not only violations of the civil rights of
both labor and management but are also criminal offenses against the State which shall
be subject to prosecution and punishment as herein provided. (Art 247, Labor Code)
The Court has always respected a company's exercise of its prerogative to
devise means to improve its operations. Thus, it has been held that management is free
to regulate, according to its own discretion and judgment, all aspects of employment,
including hiring, work assignments, supervision and transfer of employees, working
methods, time, place and manner of work.
This is so because the law on unfair labor practices is not intended to deprive
employers of their fundamental right to prescribe and enforce such rules as they
honestly believe to be necessary to the proper, productive and profitable operation of
their business. (Philcom Employees Union vs Philippine Global Communications and
Philcom Corporation)
It should be noted in this connection that Section 3 of our Industrial Peace Act
was taken from Section 7 of the Wagner Act. This Wagner Act provision was amended
in 1947 by the Taft-Hartley Act, so that, as it now stands, Section 7 reads:
Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor
organizations to bargain collectively through representatives of their own
choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective
bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to
refrain from any or all of such activities except to the extent that such right may
be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a
condition of employment as authorized in section 8(a) (3)
The Constitutional mandate that the State shall "assure the rights of the workers
to self-organization, collective bargaining, security of tenure and just and humane
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