PAPER INDUSTRIES CORP VS LAGUESMA

Topic: Managerial Employees

FACTS:

Petitioner Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines is engaged in the manufacture of paper and timber products

PICOP-Bislig instituted a Petition for Certification Election to determine the sole and exclusive bargaining agent of the supervisory and technical staff employees of PICOP for collective bargaining agreement (CBA) purposes.

Initial hearing was set. Paper Industries Corp failed to file any comment or position paper. Meanwhile, private respondents Federation of Free Workers (FFW) and Associated Labor Union (ALU) filed their respective petitions for intervention.

An Order was issued granting the petitions for interventions of the FFW and ALU. Another Order issued on the same day set the holding of a certification election among PICOP's supervisory and technical staff employees in with four choices, namely: (1) PICOP Bislig Union; (2) FFW; (3) ALU; and (4) no union.

Paper Industries Corp appealed the Order which set the holding of the certification election contending that the Med-Arbiter committed grave abuse of discretion in deciding the case without giving the corporation the opportunity to file its comments/answer, and that PICOP-Bislig Union had no personality to file the petition for certification election.

PICOP questioned and objected to the inclusion of some section heads and supervisors in the list of voters whose positions it averred were reclassified as managerial employees in the light of the reorganization effected by it.

PICOP’s contention: the company was divided into four (4) main business groups, namely: Paper Products Business, Timber Products Business, Forest Resource Business and Support Services Business. A vice- president or assistant vice-president heads each of these business groups. A division manager heads the divisions comprising each business group. A department manager heads the departments comprising each division. Section heads and supervisors, now called section managers and unit managers, head the sections and independent units, respectively, comprising each department. PICOP advanced the view that considering the alleged present authority of these section managers and unit managers to hire and fire, they are classified as managerial employees, and hence, ineligible to form or join any labor organization.

Med-Arbiter ruling: supervisors and section heads of the petitioner are managerial employees and therefore excluded from the list of voters for purposes of certification election.

DOLE Under Sec Laguesma: issued an order declaring that the subject supervisors and section heads are supervisory employees eligible to vote in the certification election.

ISSUE: W/N the positions Section Heads and Supervisors, who have been designated as Section Managers and Unit Managers, were converted to managerial employees under the decentralization and reorganization program

RULING: No, they are not managerial employees

RATIO: A thorough dissection of the job description of the concerned supervisory employees and section heads indisputably show that they are not actually managerial but only supervisory employees since they do not lay down company policies. PICOP's contention that the subject section heads and unit managers exercise the authority to hire and fire is ambiguous and quite misleading for the reason that any authority they exercise is not supreme but merely advisory in character. Theirs is not a final determination of the company policies inasmuch as any action taken by them on matters relative to hiring, promotion, transfer, suspension and termination of employees is still subject to confirmation and approval by their respective superior. Thus, where such power, which is in effect recommendatory in character, is subject to evaluation, review and final action by the department heads and other higher executives of the company, the same, although present, is not effective and not an exercise of independent judgment as required by law.

DISPOSITIVE: Under Sec. Laguesma was correct. The members of the labor unions won.

DOCTRINE: Managerial employees are ranked as Top Managers, Middle Managers and First Line Managers. Top and Middle Managers have the authority to devise, implement and control strategic and operational policies while the task of First-Line Managers is simply to ensure that such policies are carried out by the rank-and- file employees of an organization. Under this distinction, "managerial employees" therefore fall in two (2) categories, namely, the "managers" per se composed of Top and Middle Managers, and the "supervisors" composed of First-Line Managers. Thus, the mere fact that an employee is designated manager" does not ipso facto make him one. Designation should be reconciled with the actual job description of the employee, for it is the job description that determines the nature of employment.