Part 8 - BLTB Vs NLRC

 

165

Batangas Laguna Tayabas Bus vs NLRC

1.  BLTB Union filed a notice of strike because of ULP and CBA violations a.  Efforts of amicable settlement failed and SOLE certified the dispute to the NLRC 2.  The union went on strike and picketed outside the premises of BLTB Terminals a.  NLRC issued a resolution ordering the strikers to lift their picket lines and remove all obstructions and to return to work 3.  Some employees were dismissed for other causes, they filed complaints for illegal 4.  Respondents are union members who did not comply with the return to work order; but the NLRC still ordered them to be reinstated a.  BLTB questioned this order reinstating the respondents  –  they knowingly participated in illegal acts during the strike and did not comply with the order to return to work WON the respondents must be readmitted to work

YES

1.  There was an inadequate service of the certification on the union a.  Even if the resolution was published in Manila Bulletin by BLTB, SC said that ordinary workers could not be expected to read such 2.  GR only officers of the union should be penalized with loss of employment status because they are the leaders and the members only follow them a.  Also, the employees eventually returned to work after b.  Some did not because they were only given 5 days and some went to their provinces 3.  There was no abandonment of work a.  To be a valid cause for dismissal: it must be deliberate, unjustified on the part of the employee to resume his employment b.  Mere absence is not sufficient 4.  The mere filing of the charges against the employees for illegal acts will likewise not justify their dismissal a.  The charges must be proved at an investigation duly called where the employee shall be given an opportunity to defend himself 5.  The 3 employees should not be dismissed because they were not impleaded  –  lack of opportunity to be heard 6.  A worker who joins a strike does so precisely to assert or improve the terms and conditions of his employment. If his purpose is to abandon his work, he would not go to the trouble of joining a strike 7.  The order of the NLRC ordering the return to work of employees who did not commit illegal strikes is valid 8.  The right to strike is one of the rights recognized and guaranteed by the Constitution as an instrument of labor for its protection against exploitation by management.

a.  workers are able to press their demands for better terms of employment with more energy and persuasiveness, poising the threat to strike as their reaction to the employer's intransigence b.  But precisely because of this, it must be handled carefully, like a sensitive explosive, lest it blow up in the workers' own hands. Thus, it must be declared only after the most thoughtful consultation among them, conducted in the only way allowed, that is, peacefully, and in every case conformably to reasonable regulation. c.  Any violation of the legal requirements and strictures, such as a defiance of a return-to-work order in industries affected with public interest, will render the strike illegal, to the detriment of the very workers it is supposed to protect.