GENERAL MILLING CORP. - INDEPENDENT LABOR UNION (GMC-ILU) vs. GENERAL MILLING CORPORATION

G.R. No. 183122, June 15, 2011

Facts:

On 28 April 1989, GMC and the Union entered into a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) which provided, among other terms, the latter’s representation of the collective bargaining unit for a three-year term made to retroact to 1 December 1988. On 29 November 1991 or one day before the expiration of the subject CBA, the Union sent a draft CBA proposal to GMC, with a request for counter-proposals from the latter. In view of GMC’s failure to comply with said request, the Union commenced the complaint for unfair labor practice which was dismissed for lack of merit. On appeal, said dismissal was reversed and set aside in the 30 January 1998 decision rendered by the NLRC, the dispositive portion of which states:

WHEREFORE, premises considered, the instant appeal is hereby GRANTED. The Decision dated December 21, 1993 is hereby VACATED and SET ASIDE and a new one issued ordering the imposition upon the respondent company of the complainant union[‘s] draft CBA proposal for the remaining two years duration of the original CBA which is from December 1, 1991 to November 30, 1993…

SO ORDERED.

Since the abovementioned decision was reconsidered and set aside by the NLRC, the Union filed the petitions for certiorari before the CA, which in turn reversed and set aside the NLRC’s resolution and reinstated the aforesaid 30 January 1998 decision. Aggrieved by the CA’s resolution denying its motion for reconsideration, GMC elevated the case to this Court via the petition for review on certiorari. In a decision dated 11 February 2004 rendered by the Court’s then Second Division, the CA’s 30 January 1998 decision and 26 October 2000 resolution were affirmed,¹² upon the following findings and conclusions, to wit:

GMC’s failure to make a timely reply to the proposals presented by the union is indicative of its utter lack of interest in bargaining with the union. Its excuse that it felt the union no longer represented the worker, was mainly dilatory as it turned out to be utterly baseless.

We hold that GMC’s refusal to make a counter proposal to the union’s proposal for CBA negotiation is an indication of its bad faith. Where the employer did not even bother to submit an answer to the bargaining proposals of the union, there is a clear evasion of the duty to bargain collectively.

Failing to comply with the mandatory obligation to submit a reply to the union’s proposals, GMC violated its duty to bargain collectively, making it liable for unfair labor practice. Perforce, the Court of Appeals did not commit grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in finding that GMC is, under the circumstances, guilty of unfair labor practice.

x x x x

x x x (I)t would be unfair to the union and its members if the terms and conditions contained in the old CBA would continue to be imposed on GMC’s employees for the remaining two (2) years of the CBA’s duration. We are not inclined to gratify GMC with an extended term of the old CBA after it resorted to delaying tactics to prevent negotiations. Since it was GMC which violated the duty to bargain collectively, it had lost its statutory right to negotiate or renegotiate the terms and conditions of the draft CBA proposed by the union.

x x x x

Under ordinary circumstances, it is not obligatory upon either side of a labor controversy to precipitately accept or agree to the proposals of the other. But an erring party should not be allowed with impunity to schemes feigning negotiations by going through empty gestures. Thus, by imposing on GMC the provisions of the draft CBA proposed by the union, in our view, the interests of equity and fair play were properly served and both the parties regained equal footing, which was lost when GMC thwarted the negotiations for new economic terms of the CBA.

With the ensuing finality of the foregoing decision, the Union filed a motion for issuance of a writ of execution dated 21 March 2005, to enforce the claims of the covered employees which it computed in the sum of P433,786,786.36 and to require GMC to produce said employee’s time cards for the purpose of computing their overtime pay, night shift differentials and labor standard benefits for work rendered on rest days, legal holidays and special holidays. GMC filed a petition for review on certiorari.

Issue:

Whether the imposed CBA has full force and effect considering that it was not agreed upon by the Union and GMC.

Held:

Anent its period of effectivity, Article XIV of the imposed CBA provides that "(t)his Agreement shall be in full force and effect for a period of five (5) years from 1 December 1991, provided that sixty (60) days prior to the lapse of the third year of effectivity hereof, the parties shall open negotiations on economic aspect for the fourth and fifth years effectivity of this Agreement." Considering that no new CBA had been, in the meantime, agreed upon by GMC and the Union, we find that the CA correctly ruled in CA-G.R. CEB-SP No. 02226 that, pursuant to Article 253 of the Labor Code, the provisions of the imposed CBA continues to have full force and effect until a new CBA has been entered into by the parties. Article 253 mandates the parties to keep the status quo and to continue in full force and effect the terms and conditions of the existing agreement during the 60-day period prior to the expiration of the old CBA and/or until a new agreement is reached by the parties. In the same manner that it does not provide for any exception nor qualification on which economic provisions of the existing agreement are to retain its force and effect, the law does not distinguish between a CBA duly agreed upon by the parties and an imposed CBA like the one under consideration.