443 Phil. 132
CARPIO MORALES, J.:
In accordance with the above-quoted provision of the CBA, the employees’ work week was reduced to five days or a total of 250 days a year. ICTSI, however, continued using the 304-day divisor in computing the wages of the employees.[6]
Article IX
Regular Hours of Work and Days of Labor
Section 1. The regular working days in a week shall be five (5) days on any day from Monday to Sunday, as may be scheduled by the COMPANY, upon seven (7) days prior notice unless any of this day is declared a special holiday.[5] (Underscoring omitted)
[S]hould the union succeed in prosecuting the case and in getting a favorable reward it is actually they that would benefit from the decision. On the other hand, should the union fail to prove its case, or to prosecute the case diligently, the individual workers or members of the union would suffer great and immeasurable loss. … [t]hey wanted to insure by their intervention that the case would thereafter be prosecuted with all due diligence and would not again be dismissed for lack of interest to prosecute on the part of the union.[17]The Labor Arbiter rendered a decision, the dispositive portion of which reads:
WHEREFORE, decision is hereby rendered declaring that the correct divisor in computing the daily wage and other labor standard benefits of the employees of respondent ICTSI who are members of complainant Union as well as the other employees similarly situated is two hundred fifty (250) days such that said respondent is hereby ordered to pay the employees concerned the differentials representing the underpayment of said salaries and other benefits reckoned three (3) years back from February 26, 1997, the date of filing of this complaint or computed from February 27 1994 until paid, but for purposes of appeal, the salary differentials are temporarily computed for one year in the amount of Four Hundred Sixty Eight Thousand Forty Pesos (P468,040.00).[18]In the same decision, the Labor Arbiter denied petitioners-appellants’ Complaint-in-Intervention with Motion for Intervention upon a finding that they are already well represented by APCWU.[19]
It is clear from the records that herein petitioners, claiming to be employees of respondent ICTSI, are already well represented by its employees union, APCWU, in the petition before this Court (CA-G.R. SP. No. 53266) although the same has been dismissed. The present petition is, therefore a superfluity that deserves to be dismissed. Furthermore, only Acedera signed the Certificate of non-forum shopping. On this score alone, this petition should likewise be dismissed. We find that the same has no merit considering that herein petitioners have not presented any meritorious argument that would justify the reversal of the Decision of the NLRC.Hence, the present petition of petitioners-appellants who fault the Court of Appeals as follows:
Article IX of the CBA provides:This provision categorically states the required number of working days an employee is expected to work for a week. It does not, however, indicate the manner in which an employee’s salary is to be computed. In fact, nothing in the CBA makes any referral to any divisor which should be the basis for determining the salary. The NLRC, therefore, correctly ruled that” xxx the absence of any express or specific provision in the CBA that 250 days should be used as divisor altogether makes the position of the Union untenable.”Regular Hours of Work and Days of Labor
“Section 1. The regular working days in a week shall be five (5) days on any day from Monday to Sunday, as may be scheduled by the COMPANY, upon seven (7) days prior notice unless any of this day is declared a special holiday.”
x x x
Considering that herein petitioners themselves requested that 365 days be used as the divisor in computing their wage increase and later did not raise or object to the same during the negotiations of the new CBA, they are clearly estopped to now complain of such computation only because they no longer benefit from it. Indeed, the 365 divisor for the past seven (7) years has already become practice and law between the company and its employees.[24] (Emphasis supplied)
x x x
The third assigned error respecting petitioners-appellants’ right to intervene shall first be passed upon, it being determinative of their right to raise the other assigned errors.I
. . . IN REJECTING THE CBA OF THE PARTIES AS THE SOURCE OF THE DIVISOR TO DETERMINE THE WORKERS’ DAILY RATE TOTALLY DISREGARDED THE APPLICABLE LANDMARK DECISIONS OF THE HONORABLE SUPREME COURT ON THE MATTER.
II
. . . [IN] DISREGARD[ING] APPLICABLE DECISIONS OF THIS HONORABLE COURT WHEN IT RULED THAT THE PETITIONERS-APPELLANTS ARE ALREADY IN ESTOPPEL.
III
. . . IN RULING THAT THE PETITIONERS-APPELLANTS HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT TO INTERVENE IN AND PURSUE THIS CASE AND THAT THEIR INTERVENTION IS A SUPERFLUITY.
IV
. . . IN HOLDING, ALTHOUGH MERELY AS AN OBITER DICTUM, THAT ONLY PETITIONER JERRY ACEDERA SIGNED THE CERTIFICATE OF NON-FORUM SHOPPING.[25]
Section 1. Who may intervene.- A person who has legal interest in the matter in litigation, or in the success of either of the parties, or an interest against both, or is so situated to be adversely affected by a distribution or other disposition of property in the custody of the court or of an officer thereof may, with leave of court, be allowed to intervene in the action. The court shall consider whether or not the intervention will unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties, and whether or not the intervenor’s right may be fully protected in a separate proceeding.They stress that they have complied with the requisites for intervention because (1) they are the ones who stand to gain or lose by the direct legal operation and effect of any judgment that may be rendered in this case, (2) no undue delay or prejudice would result from their intervention since their Complaint-in-Intervention with Motion for Intervention was filed while the Labor Arbiter was still hearing the case and before any decision thereon was rendered, and (3) it was not possible for them to file a separate case as they would be guilty of forum shopping because the only forum available for them was the Labor Arbiter.[26]
Sec. 3. Representatives as parties.- Where the action is allowed to be prosecuted or defended by a representative or someone acting in a fiduciary capacity, the beneficiary shall be included in the title of the case and shall be deemed to be the real party in interest. A representative may be a trustee of an express trust, a guardian, an executor or administrator, or a party authorized by law or these Rules. . . [27] (Emphasis supplied)A labor union is one such party authorized to represent its members under Article 242(a) of the Labor Code which provides that a union may act as the representative of its members for the purpose of collective bargaining. This authority includes the power to represent its members for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the CBA. That APCWU acted in a representative capacity “for and in behalf of its Union members and other employees similarly situated,” the title of the case filed by it at the Labor Arbiter’s Office so expressly states.