ECOP vs. NWPC, RTWPB-NCR & TUCP G.R. No.

96169, September 24, 1991 FACTS: ECOP questioned the validity of the wage order issued by the RTWPB, increasing the minimum wage by P17.00/day in NCR. The wage order was made applicable to all workers and employees in the private sector, including those who are paid above the statutory wage rate. The NWPC dismissed ECOPs petition. The Solicitor General commented that the RTWPB may fix minimum wages according to the salary method, while ECOP insisted that the RTWPB may do so only by adjusting floor wages. ISSUE: WON the wage order was valid. HELD: YES. There are two ways of fixing wage - the floor wage method and the salary ceiling method. The floor wage method involves the fixing of determinate amount that would be added to the prevailing statutory minimum wage, while the salary ceiling method involves the application of the wage adjustment to employees receiving a certain denominated salary ceiling. CAGAYAN SUGAR MILLING CO. vs. SECRETARY OF LABOR G.R. No. 128399 FACTS: Cagayan Sugar Milling, Co. violated the wage order issued by the RTWPB, having failed to implement the across the board increase in the salary of its employees. Another wage order was issued, amending the earlier wage order and providing that the across the board wage increase shall retroact to the date of the effectivity of the earlier wage order. ISSUE: WON the amendatory wage order violated CSMCs right to due process. HELD: YES. The amendatory wage order was invalid for lack of public consultations and h e a r i n g s a n d n o n - p u b l i c a t i o n i n a n e w s p a p e r o f g e n e r a l circulation, in violation of the Labor Code. CSMC was deprived of due process as it was not given the opportunity to ventilate its position regarding the proposed wage increase. EAGLE SECURITY AGENCY vs. NLRC 173 SCRA 479 FACTS: Employees of Eagle Security Agency, security guards in the Philippine Tuberculosis Society, Inc., filed a complaint against ESA and PTSI for unpaid wage increases granted under four wage orders. PTSI alleged that the wage increases should be borne exclusively by ESA, pursuant to the provision in their contract, while the latter contended that, under the wage orders, the former should be held liable for the same. ISSUE: WON ESA and PTSI should be jointly and severally liable for the wage increases. HELD: YES. The joint and several liability of the contractor and the principal is mandated by the Labor Code to assure compliance of the provisions therein including the statutory minimum wage. The contractor is made liable by virtue of his status as direct employer. The principal, on the other hand, is made the indirect employer of the contractor's employees for purposes of paying the employees their wages should the contractor be unable to pay them. The solidary liability, however, does not preclude the right of reimbursement from the co-debtor by the one who paid.

LMG CHEMICALS CORP. vs. SECRETARY OF LABOR 356 SCRA 557 FACTS: LMG Chemicals Corporation and Chemical Workers Union, the latter representing the daily paid employees of the former, agreed on the political provisions, but not the wage increase and economic provisions, of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Not having reached an amicable settlement, the Secretary of Labor issued an order fixing the wage increase. ISSUE: WON LMGCC should abide the wage order. HELD: YES. That one of the divisions of LMGCC suffered losses does not justify the withholding of any salary increase as its income from all sources are collated for the determination of its true financial condition. METROPOLITAN BANK AND TRUST CO. EMPLOYEES UNION-AL-TUCP vs. NLRC G.R. No. 102636, September 10, 1993 FACTS: Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. Employees Union entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement, which granted a wage increase in favor only of its regular employees. Republic Act 6727 was enacted, increasing the wage of all workers and employees in the private sector, including those already receiving above the minimum wage rates up to P100.00. MBTC, as a result, applied said wage increase to its probationary employees and those whose daily wage was P100.00 and below, but not to its regular employees and the recipients of the wage increase under the CBA. ISSUE: WON there was wage distortion. HELD: YES. Wage distortion exists when, as a result of an increase in the prescribed wage rate, an "elimination or severe contraction of intentional quantitative differences in wage or salary rates" would occur "between and among employee groups in an establishment as to effectively obliterate the distinctions embodied in such wage structure based on skills, length of service, or other logical bases of differentiation." In mandating an adjustment, the law did not require that there be an elimination or total abrogation of quantitative wage or salary differences; a severe contraction thereof is enough. PRODUCERS BANK vs. NLRC 355 SCRA 489 FACTS: A wage order was issued, which credited the wage increase granted before its effectivity as compliance therewith. Subsequently, Producers Bank Employees Association and Producers Bank entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement, providing for a wage increase, which was to take effect retroactively before the issuance of the wage order and made chargeable against those ordered or legislated by the government. ISSUE: WON the creditability provision was valid. HELD: YES. The creditability provision in the wage order is based on important public policy, that is, the encouragement of employers to grant wage and allowance increases to their employees higher than the minimum rates of increases prescribed by statute or administrative regulation. GALVADORES vs. TRAJANO G.R. No. 70067, September 15, 1986

FACTS: Atty. Espinas, legal counsel of the Union of which Galvadores is a member, appeared as counsel in the Unions dispute with the Phiilippine Long Distance Telephone Company, resulting from a bargaining deadlock. Subsequently, the Minister of Labor awarded across-the-board wage increases. The Unions Executive Board requested PLDT to deduct from said increase the fees due to Atty. Espinas. Members of the Union questioned the validity of this set-off. ISSUE: WON the set-off was valid. HELD: NO. No check-offs from any amounts due employees may be effected without individual written authorizations duly signed by the employee specifically stating the amount, purpose and beneficiary of the deduction. A. L. AMMEN TRANSPORTATION CO., INC. vs. BICOL TRANSPORTATION EMPLOYEES MUTUAL ASSOC. G.R. No. L-4941, July 25, 1952 FACTS: The Court of Industrial Relations ordered A.L. Ammen Transportation Co., Inc. "to continue its former practice of allowing check-off to petitioning union whose affiliates have already filed with the management of the respondent company their corresponding authority to make the necessary deductions from their monthly earnings. This was questioned by the employee-members of the petitioning union. ISSUE: WON the CIRs order was valid. HELD: YES. Republic Act No. 602 is a clear signal that check-off is one of the matters affecting labor management relations which the CIR may include in an award, order or decision. P.I. MANUFACTURING, INC. vs. P.I. MANUFACTURING SUPERVISORS AND FOREMAN ASSOC., et. al. G.R. No. 167217, February 4, 2008 FACTS: R.A. 6640 was signed into law, providing a wage increase. Subsequently, P.I. Manufacturing, Inc. and P.I. Manufacturing Supervisors and Foreman Association entered into a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which granted supervisors and foremen an increase that was made to retroact to before the passage of the law. A wage distortion resulted. ISSUE: WON the wage distortion should be corrected. HELD: NO. Although there was a wage distortion, the same was cured or remedied when PIMSFA entered into the new CBA with PIMI after the effectivity of R.A. 6640. A CBA constitutes the law between the parties when freely and voluntarily entered into. ALLIANCE TRADE UNIONS vs. NLRC G.R. No.140689, February 17, 2004 FACTS: The Board of Directors of Bankard, Inc. approved a New Salary Scale, which increased the hiring wage of new employees and, consequently, adjusted the salaries of the employees who fell below the new wage. Bankard Employees Union-WATU requested BI to increase in the salary of its old, regular employees, but the latter refused. ISSUE: WON there was wage distortion, which should be corrected. HELD: NO. There are four elements of wage distortion: (1) an existing hierarchy of positions with corresponding salary rates; (2) a significant change in the salary rate of a lower pay class without a concomitant increase in the salary rate of a higher one; (3) the elimination of the distinction between the

two levels; and (4) the existence of the distortion in the same region of the country. The entry of new employees to the company ipso facto places them under any of the levels mentioned in the new salary scale. The mere factual existence of wage distortion does not ipso facto result to an obligation to rectify it, absent a law or other source of obligation which requires its rectification. MANILA MANDARIN EMPLOYEES UNION vs. NLRC G.R. No. 108556, November 19, 1996 FACTS: Manila Mandarin Employees Union, exclusive bargaining agent of the rank-and-file employees of the Manila Mandarin Hotel, Inc., filed a complaint to compel the latter to pay the salary differentials of its concerned employees because of wage distortions in their salary structure, allegedly created by the upward revisions of the minimum wage, pursuant to various Presidential Decrees and Wage Orders, and its failure to implement the corresponding increases in the basic salary rate of newly-hired employees. ISSUE: WON there was wage distortion. HELD: NO. The clear mandate of the issuances was merely to increase the prevailing minimum wages of particular employee groups. There were no across-the-board increases to all employees; increases were required only as regards those specified therein. Therefore, it was incorrect for MMEU to claim that all its members became automatically entitled to across-the-board increases upon the effectivity of the issuances in question. Even if there were wage distortions, the appropriate remedy thereunder prescribed is for the employer and the union to "negotiate" to correct them; or, if the dispute be not thereby resolved, to thresh out the controversy through the grievance procedure in the collective bargaining agreement, or through conciliation or arbitration. METROPOLITAN BANK AND TRUST CO. EMPLOYEES UNION-AL-TUCP vs. NLRC G.R. No. 102636, September 10, 1993 FACTS: Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. Employees Union entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement, which granted a wage increase in favor only of its regular employees. Republic Act 6727 was enacted, increasing the wage of all workers and employees in the private sector, including those already receiving above the minimum wage rates up to P100.00. MBTC, as a result, applied said wage increase to its probationary employees and those whose daily wage was P100.00 and below, but not to its regular employees and the recipients of the wage increase under the CBA. ISSUE: WON there was wage distortion, which should be corrected. HELD: YES. In keeping then with the intendment of the law and the agreement of the parties themselves, along with the often repeated rule that all doubts in the interpretation and implementation of labor laws should be resolved in favor of labor, we must approximate an acceptable quantitative difference between and among the CBA agreed work levels using the following formula. Minimum Wage % x Prescribed -------------------- = Increased = Distortion Actual Salary Adjustment