477 Phil. 262
PANGANIBAN, J.:
“In sum, the Court finds that public respondents did not commit any abuse of discretion in issuing the assailed decision and order. There is no capricious and whimsical exercise of judgment as is equivalent to lack of jurisdiction and hence there is no room for the issuance of the equitable writ of certiorari.The challenged Resolution denied petitioner’s Motion for Reconsideration.
“WHEREFORE, the instant petition is dismissed.”[4]
“On October 14, 1991, private respondent Notre Dame of Greater Manila Teachers & Employees Union (NGMTEU for brevity) a legitimate labor organization duly accredited and registered with the Department of Labor & Employment (DOLE) under Registration Certificate No. 9989 filed with the Med-Arbitration Branch, National Capital Region, (DOLE) a petition for direct certification as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent or certification election among the rank and file employees of petitioner NDGM.
“On November 18, 1991, Med-Arbiter Tomas F. Falconitin issued an order [granting the petition for certification election and] directing Adelayda C. Francisco, Representation Officer, to undertake a pre-election conference. The order reads:‘Considering the manifestation of petitioner its legal counsel praying that this case be submitted for resolution; and considering further that the respondent failed to appear on November 13, 1991 scheduled hearing despite knowledge of said hearing; and considering furthermore [that] respondent is [an] unorganized establishment within the purview of Art. 257 of the Labor Code, as amended, we rule to grant certification election instead of direct certification as prayed for by petitioner, in order to give each employee a fair chance to choose their bargaining agent.“On January 8, 1992, a pre-election conference was conducted wherein the parties agreed, among others, that the certification election shall be conducted on January 18, 1992 from 10:00 o’clock in the morning to 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon and that the eligible voters shall be ‘those employees appearing in the list submitted by management as agreed upon by the parties by affixing their signatures on said list.’
‘Accordingly, the Representation Officer is hereby directed to conduct the usual pre-election conference in connection thereof, taking into account the following choices:‘SO ORDERED.’
- Notre Dame of Greater Manila Teachers and Employees Union (NDGMTEU); and
- No Union.
“On January 13, 1992, petitioner NDGM registered a motion to include probationary and substitute employees in the list of qualified voters. On the same day, respondent Med-Arbiter Falconitin denied said motion by handwritten notation on the motion itself – ‘1/13/92 – The Rep. officer allow[s] only regular employees to vote’.
“On January 17, 1992, petitioner NDGM filed an appeal from the said handwritten ‘order’ dated January 13, 1992 of Med. Arbiter Falconitin in the form of a notation, in effect excluding probationary and substitute employees from the list of voters.
“On January 18, 1992, public respondent conducted a certification election with the following results:
‘YES…………….. 56 NO………………
23 Number of segregated Ballots…… 4 Number of spoiled Ballots…… _1_ Total……………… 84’
“On January 18, 1992, petitioner filed a written notice of protest against the conduct and results of the certification of election, which was opposed by private respondent NDGMTEU.
“On January 27, 1992, a motion to certify private respondent NDGMTEU as the exclusive bargaining agent of petitioner was filed.
“On March 16, 1992[,] Med-Arbiter Tomas Falconitin issued an order which certified private respondent NDGMTEU as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent of all the rank-and-file employees of petitioner and accordingly dismissed petitioner’s protest.
“On March 30, 1992, petitioner lodged an appeal from the aforementioned March 16, 1992 Order of Med-Arbiter Falconitin.
“On July 23, 1992, respondent then Undersecretary Laguesma rendered the questioned decision dismissing the appeal for lack of merit.
“Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration of the Decision which was rejected by public respondent in his order dated October 12, 1992.
“Dissatisfied, petitioner NDGM filed the instant petition asseverating on the following issues, viz:‘The issuance of the orders dated July 23, 1992 and October 12, 1992 is flagrantly contrary to and violative of the provisions of the Labor Code of the Philippines.
‘1. On [o]rdering the [h]olding of the [c]ertification [e]lection on January 18, 1992 despite [p]etitioner’s [p]erfected [a]ppeal on January 17, 1992 with the Office of the Secretary of the Department.
‘2. On the [a]rbitrary, whimsical and capricious exclusion from the Qualified Voters List [p]robationary and [s]ubstitute [e]mployees, contrary to law and established jurisprudence.’”[5]
“A. Whether or not Hon. Court of Appeals committed grave error in dismissing the petition which petition alleged that Public Respondent Laguesma flagrantly violated the provisions of the Labor Code of the Philippines in the issuance of Orders, dated July 23, 1992 and October 12, 1992[.]Simply put, the main issue is whether the holding of the certification election was stayed by petitioner’s appeal of the med-arbiter’s notation on the Motion to Include the Probationary and Substitute Employees in the List of Qualified Voters.
“B. Whether or not the Hon. Court of Appeals committed errors in fact and law[.]”[7]
“Art 259. Appeal from certification election orders.– Any party to an election may appeal the order or results of the election as determined by the Med-Arbiter directly to the Secretary of Labor and Employment on the grounds that the rules and regulations or parts thereof established by the Secretary of Labor and Employment for the conduct of the election have been violated. Such appeal shall be decided within fifteen (15) calendar days.”This provision is supplemented by Section 10 of Rule V of Book Five of the 1992 Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code. Stating that such appeal stays the holding of a certification election, the later provision reads:
“Sec. 10. Decision of the Secretary final and inappealable.– The Secretary shall have fifteen (15) calendar days within which to decide the appeal from receipt of the records of the case. The filing of the appeal from the decision of the Med-Arbiter stays the holding of any certification election. The decision of the Secretary shall be final and inappealable.”Petitioner argues that the med-arbiter’s January 13, 1992 handwritten notation denying its Motion was the order referred to by Article 259. Hence, petitioner insists that its appeal of the denial should have stayed the holding of the certification election.
“SEC. 6. Procedure.– Upon receipt of a petition, the Regional Director shall assign the case to a Med-Arbiter for appropriate action. The Med-Arbiter, upon receipt of the assigned petition, shall have twenty (20) working days from submission of the case for resolution within which to dismiss or grant the petition. In a petition filed by a legitimate organization involving an unorganized establishment, the Med-Arbiter shall immediately order the conduct of a certification election.
“In a petition involving an organized establishment or enterprise where the majority status of the incumbent collective bargaining union is questioned through a verified petition by a legitimate labor organization, the Med-Arbiter shall immediately order the certification election by secret ballot if the petition is filed x x x.“x x x x x x x x x.” (Italics supplied)
“SEC. 7 . Appeal.– Any aggrieved party may appeal the order of the Med-Arbiter to the Secretary on the ground that the rules and regulations or parts thereof established by the Secretary for the conduct of election have been violated.
“There is another infirmity from which the petition suffers. It was filed by the employer, the adversary in the collective bargaining process. Precisely, the institution of collective bargaining is designed to assure that the other party, labor, is free to choose its representative. To resolve any doubt on the matter, certification election, to repeat, is the most appropriate means of ascertaining its will. It is true that there may be circumstances where the interest of the employer calls for its being heard on the matter. An obvious instance is where it invokes the obstacle interposed by the contract-bar rule. This case certainly does not fall within the exception. Sound policy dictates that as much as possible, management is to maintain a strictly hands-off policy. For [if] it does not, it may lend itself to the legitimate suspicion that it is partial to one of the contending [choices in the election].”[23]This Court would be the last agency to support an attempt to interfere with a purely internal affair of labor.[24] The provisions of the Labor Code relating to the conduct of certification elections were enacted precisely for the protection of the right of the employees to determine their own bargaining representative. Employers are strangers to these proceedings. They are forbidden from influencing or hampering the employees’ rights under the law. They should not in any way affect, much less stay, the holding of a certification election by the mere convenience of filing an appeal with the labor secretary. To allow them to do so would do violence to the letter and spirit of welfare legislations intended to protect labor and to promote social justice.