G.R. No. 148924 - TOYOTA MOTOR PHILS. CORPORATION WORKERS' ASSOCIATION (TMPCWA), VS. COURT OF APPEALS (FOURTH DIVISION) JUSTICES ROBERTO BARRIOS, RAMON MABUTAS AND EDGARDO CRUZ, AND TOYOTA MOTOR PHILS. CORPORATION.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered declaring the challenged voters as ineligible and excluding their votes from the totality of the valid votes cast. Accordingly, TMPCWA is hereby declared to have obtained the majority of the valid votes cast and is hereby certified as the bargaining agent of the rank-and-file employees of the company. [14] The respondent interposed an appeal from the said order before the DOLE, alleging that the Med-Arbiter acted with grave abuse of discretion in issuing the same. The respondent asserted that the challenged voters were rank-and-file employees. The petitioner, on the other hand, insisted that the said employees occupied position Levels 5 and upwards; hence, are supervisory employees, citing the ruling of this Court in Toyota Motor Phils. Corporation v. Toyota Motor Corporation Labor Union . Meanwhile, on June 21, 2000, the employees of the respondent whose votes were challenged filed a petition for declaratory relief with the Arbitration Board of the DOLE, docketed as NLRC-NCR-30-06-02556-00 against the petitioner, praying that: P R A Y E R WHEREFORE, petitioners respectfully pray that after due consideration, the Honorable Office render judgment declaring the petitioners are indeed rank-and-file employees based on their employment contract, job description, actual duties and responsibilities and affidavits. [15] There was no appearance for the petitioner. On August 4, 2000, Jimmy Sy and other employees of the respondent who were among the 105 challenged voters filed a motion to intervene in NCR-OD-M-9902-001 alleging, inter alia , that they had earlier filed a petition for declaratory relief in NLRC-NCR-30-06-02556-00. On August 7, 2000, Labor Arbiter Eduardo M. Madriaga rendered a decision granting the petition, the decretal portion of which reads: The Constitution mandates that the State shall accord protection to labor. We are, therefore, constrained to grant the instant petition but only for the sole purpose that petitioners may exercise all their rights and claim all legal benefits as rank-and-file workers, as found in the Constitution and the Labor Code. Otherwise, the rights of workers and their legal benefits may be rendered inutile if their status is unresolved. WHEREFORE, premises considered, the prayer in the Petition is hereby granted. SO ORDERED.