Labor Relations Law

Right to Self-organization

Basic Concepts

workers join together to solve the workers workplace problems, to build better workplaces for themselves, & to have a formal voice

Unions are based on the following suppositions:

Companies are big & powerful Compared to the powerful company, each worker is weak when alone

Power imbalance: If you dont like it, go ahead and quit

Unions equalize the power imbalance: theres strength in numbers

Union

refers to any labor organization in the private sector organized for collective bargaining and for other legitimate purposes

Collective bargaining

instead of each worker bargaining individually with the company, workers join together in a union to bargain collectively with the company

Bargain for better terms & conditions of employment

Better pay, better benefits, better hours, better working conditions

Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA

refers to the contract between a legitimate labor union and the employer concerning wages, hours of work, and all other terms and conditions of employment in a bargaining unit.

Bargaining Unit

Refers to a group of employees sharing mutual interest within a given employer unit comprised of all or less than all of the entire body of employees in the employer unit or any specific occupational or geographic grouping within such employer unit

Union representation

Do workers want to be on their own, or do they want to join together in a union, to seek better terms & conditions of employment?

Workers get to decide for themselves if they want:

Either everyone for themselves in trying to get a better deal Or everyone works together for a better deal

The Basic Steps To Organizing a Union

Privately talk with co-workers

This small group starts to privately discuss workplace issues, what is involved in organizing a union

Build an Organizing Committee

Leaders are identified and an organizing committee representing all major departments and all shifts and reflecting the racial, ethnic and gender diversity in the workforce is established.

Information to be gathered

workplace structure: departments, work areas, jobs, shifts employee information: name, address, phone, shift, job title, and department for each worker (employee list) employer information: other locations, parent company, product(s), customers, union history

Adopt An Issues Program

The committee develops a program of union demands (the improvements you are organizing to achieve) and a strategy for the union election campaign.

Sign-Up Majority on Union Cards

Your co-workers are asked to join and support the union program by signing membership cards. The goal is to sign-up a sizable majority. This "card campaign" should proceed quickly once begun and is necessary to hold a union election.

Win the Union Election

It will take the labor board at least several weeks to determine who is eligible to vote and schedule the election. If the union wins, the employer must recognize and bargain with the union. Winning a union election not only requires a strong, diverse organizing committee and a solid issues program, but there must also be a plan to fight the employers anti-union campaign.

Negotiate a Contract

The real goal of the campaign, a union contract (the document the union and the employer negotiate and sign, covering everything from wages to how disputes will be handled), is still to be achieved. Workers must be mobilized to support the unions contract demands (decided by you and your co-workers) and pressure the employer to meet them.

Organized! Make It Your Union!

Right to Self-Organization The right includes:

Forming, joining, or assisting labor organizations for the purpose of collective bargaining through representatives of their own choosing. To engage in lawful concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or for their mutual aid and protection.

Who Enjoys the Right to Self-Organization

General Rule:
1. ALL persons in:

Commercial, industrial, agricultural, religious, charitable, medical and educational institutions, whether or not operated for profit.

PURPOSE: Collective bargaining, engaging in lawful concerted activities for collective bargaining, and mutual aid and protection.

2. Ambulant, intermittent and itinerant and rural workers, the self-employed and those with no definite employers may form labor organizations.

PURPOSE: Mutual aid and protection.

It shall be unlawful for any person to restrain, coerce, discriminate against, or unduly interfere with employees and workers in their exercise of the right to self organization.

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

1. Definition and Types

Labor Organization means any union or association of employees which exists in whole or in part for the purpose of collective bargaining or of dealing with employers concerning terms and conditions of employment Legitimate Labor Organization means any labor organization duly registered with the DOLE, and includes any branch or local thereof

Affiliate refers to an independent union affiliated with a federation or national union or a chartered local which was subsequently granted independent registration but did not disaffiliate from its federation, reported to the Regional Office and the Bureau in accordance with Rule III, Sections 6 and 7 of these Rules. Chartered Local refers to a labor organization that acquired legal personality through the issuance of a charter certificate by a duly registered federation or national union, and reported to the Regional Office in accordance with Rule III, Section 2-E of the Rules.

Consolidation refers to the creation or formation of a new union arising from the unification of two or more unions Independent Union refers to a labor organization operating at the enterprise level that acquired legal personality through independent registration

Legitimate Workers Association refers to an association of workers organized for mutual aid and protection of its members or for any legitimate purpose other than collective bargaining registered with the Department Merger refers to a process where a labor organization absorbs another

National Union or Federation refers to a group of legitimate labor unions in a private establishment organized for collective bargaining or for dealing with employers concerning terms and conditions of employment for their member unions or for participating in the formulation of social and employment policies and standards and programs, registered with the Bureau Union refers to any labor organization in the private sector organized for collective bargaining and for other legitimate purposes

Workers Association refers to an association of workers organized for the mutual aid and protection of its members for any legitimate purpose other than collective bargaining.

2. Registration of labor organizations

Art. 231. Registry of unions and file of collective bargaining agreements. Art. 234. Requirements of registration. Art. 235. Action on application. Art. 236. Denial of registration; appeal. Art. 237. Additional requirements for federations or national unions. Art. 238. Cancellation of registration; appeal. Art. 239. Grounds for cancellation of union registration. Art. 240. Equity of the incumbent.

3. Cancellation of registration
1. Misrepresentation, False Statement or Fraud in connection with:

a. adoption/ratification of the CBL or amendments thereto, minutes of ratification and the list of members who took part in the ratification b. election of officers, minutes thereof, list of officers/voters c. in the preparation of the financial reports

2. Failure to Submit:

a. CBL, minutes of its adoption/ratification, list of members who took part within 30 days from adoption of ratification or amendments thereto b. Minutes of the elections of officers, list of officers/voters within 30 days from election c. Annual financial report to the BLR within 30 days after the closing of every fiscal year d. List of individual members to the BLR once ayear or whenever required by the BLR

3. Acting as labor contractor or engaging in the 'Cabo System' or otherwise engaging in any activity prohibited by law 4. Entering into CBAs with terms and conditions of employment below minimum standards established by law 5. Asking for or accepting attorney's fees or negotiation fees from employer

6. Checking off special assessments or any other fees without duly signed individual written authorizations of the members (other than for mandatory activities under the Labor Code)

4. Rights of Labor Organization

Art. 242. Rights of legitimate labor organizations. Art. 277. Miscellaneous provisions. (a) All unions are authorized to collect reasonable membership fees, union dues, assessments and fines and other contributions for labor education and research, mutual death and hospitalization benefits, welfare fund, strike fund and credit and cooperative undertakings.

Rights of Labor Organizations

1. To act as the representative of its members for the purpose of collective bargaining; 2. To be certified as the exclusive representative for purposes of collective bargaining; 3. To be furnished by the employer, with its annual audited financial statements, including the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement. 4. To own property, real or personal, for the use and benefit of the labor organization and its members; 5. To sue and be sued in its registered name; 6. To undertake all other activities designed to benefit the organization and its members, including cooperative, housing, welfare and other projects not contrary to law.

The income and properties received by legitimate labor organization which are actually, directly and exclusively used for their lawful purposes shall be free from taxes, duties and other assessments.

Right to Represent its Members

When a union files a case for and in behalf of its members, a member of that union will not be permitted to file in the same case a complaint-in intervention. Intervention will be allowed only if there is suggestion of fraud or collusion or that the representative will not act in good faith for the protection of all interest represented by the union. Compromise agreement between the union and the company is binding upon the minority members of the union.

Compromise of Money Claims

Money claims due to laborers cannot be the object of settlement or compromise effected by a union or counsel without the specific individual consent of each laborer concerned. The beneficiaries are the individual complainants themselves. The union can only assist them but cannot decide for them.

When the Union has the Right to be Furnished with Financial Statements
1. After the union has been recognized by the employer as sole bargaining representative of the employees in the bargaining unit. 2. After the union is certified by DOLE as such sole bargaining representative. 3. Written request from the union 4. Within the last 60 days of the life of a CBA 5. During the collective bargaining negotiation

Right to Collect Fees

Right to collect fees is recognized in Art. 277(a) and discussed under the topic of check-off under Art. 241 (Rights and conditions of membership in a labor organization)

SPECIAL GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES

1. Managerial & Supervisory Employees

Under Art. 245, managerial employees are not eligible to join, assist or form any labor organization. Supervisory employees shall not be eligible for membership in a labor organization of the rank-and-file employees but may join, assist or form separate labor organizations of their own.

Manager one who is vested with the power or prerogative to lay down an execute management policies and/or to hire, transfer, suspend, lay-off, recall, discharge, assign or discipline employees

Note that the management policies must pertain exclusively to labor relations.

Supervisor one, who, in the interest of the employer, effectively recommends managerial actions

Power to recommend

Must be both

1. Effective, and 2. Requires the Use of Independent Judgment.

2. Confidential Employees

Confidential employees are also prohibited from forming, joining or assisting any labor organization.

Confidential Employees a confidential employee is one who is entrusted with confidence on delicate matters, or with custody, handling, or care and protection of the employers property.

Purpose of Disqualification of Confidential Employees

Doctrine of Necessary Implication what is implied in a statute is as much part thereof as that which is expressed

Under Art. 245, confidential employees are not prohibited from joining, assisting, or forming any labor organization. But by virtue of necessary implication, confidential employees are similarly disqualified. By the very nature of their functions, they assist and act in a confidential capacity to, or have access to confidential matters of, persons who exercise managerial functions in the field of labor relations. As such, the rationale behind the ineligibility of managerial employees to form, assist or join a labor union equally applies to them.

3. Security Guards

Under RA 6715, they may now join a labor organization of the rank and file or that of the supervisory union, depending on their rank.

4. Members of Cooperatives 5. Members of Iglesia ni Kristo

Government Employees Not Allowed To Unionize

1. Members of the Armed Forces 2. Police Officers/Policemen 3. Firemen 4. Jail Guards