Introduction and Review of Important Topics

Question 1

What are the strategic policies of our labor relations law?

Answer 1

Article. 211. Declaration of Policy. - A. It is the policy of the State:

(a) To promote and emphasize the primacy of free collective bargaining and negotiations, including voluntary arbitration, mediation and conciliation, as modes of settling labor or industrial disputes;

(b) To promote free trade unionism as an instrument for the enhancement of democracy and the promotion of social justice and development;

(c) To foster the free and voluntary organization of a strong and united labor movement;

(d) To promote the enlightenment of workers concerning their rights and obligations as union members and as employees;

(e) To provide an adequate administrative machinery for the expeditious settlement of labor or industrial disputes;

(f) To ensure a stable but dynamic and just industrial peace; and

(g) To ensure the participation of workers in decision and policy-making processes affecting their rights, duties and welfare.

B. To encourage a truly democratic method of regulating the relations between the employers and employees by means of agreements freely entered into through collective bargaining, no court or administrative agency or official shall have the power to set or fix wages, rates of pay, hours of work or other terms and conditions of employment, except as otherwise provided under this Code. (As amended by Section 3, Republic Act No. 6715, March 21, 1989).

Question 2

What is Labor Relations?

Answer 2

Refers to the interactions xbetween Er and Ees or
their representatives and the mechanism by which
the standards and other terms and conditions of
employment are negotiated, adjusted, and enforced.
(Azucena, 2016)

Question 3

Define labor standards.

Answer 3

The minimum requirements prescribed by existing laws, rules, and regulations as to the terms and
conditions of employment relating to wages,
hours of work, cost-of-living allowance, and
other monetary and welfare benefits, including
occupational, safety, and health standards.
(Maternity Children’s Hospital v. Secretary of
Labor, G.R. No. 78909, 30 June 1989)

Question 4

What are the goals of labor relations law?

Question 5

What is social justice?

Answer 5

Social justice is “neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy,” but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures calculated to insure economic stability of all the competent elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus populi est suprema lex.

Question 6

Why do workers organize?

Answer 6

1. desire for job security
2. employees want the rule of law to prevail instead of capricious and arbitrary exercise of power by the boss
3. it gives employees a sense of participation

Question 7

What are labor standard disputes and some examples?

Answer 7

Labor Standard Disputes concern terms and conditions of employment. It covers compensation, benefits and working conditions.

Question 8

What are labor relations disputes?

Answer 8

they concern association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining or changing the terms and conditions of employment

eg:
organizational right dispute/unfair labor practices
representation disputes
bargaining disputes
contract administration or personnel policy disputes
employment tenure disputes