Tupas v.

NHC

Facts:
National Housing Corporation is a corporation organized in under
Executive Order No. 399 of the Uniform Charter of Government Corporations.
Its shares of stock are and have been 100% owned by the government from
its incorporation under Act 459, the former corporation law. The government
entities that own its shares of stock are the GSIS, SSS, DBP, the National
Investment and Development Corporation and the People's Homesite and
Housing Corporation. On the other hand, Trade Unions of the Philippines and
Allied Services is a legitimate labor organization with a chapter in NHC.
In 1977, TUPAS filed a petition for the conduct of a certification election with
DOLE Regional Office in order to determine the exclusive bargaining
representative of the workers in NHC. It was claimed that its members
comprised the majority of the employees of the corporation. The petition was
dismissed by the med-arbiter holding that NHC being a government-owned
and/or controlled corporation its employees/workers are prohibited to form,
join or assist any labor organization for purposes of collective bargaining
pursuant to Section 1, Rule II, Book V of the Rules and Regulations
Implementing the Labor Code.
TUPAS appealed to BLR which, in turn, reversed the med-arbiter and
ordered a certification election to be conducted. However, the same was
reversed in the MR. Hence, this petition.

Issue:
WON a certification election may be conducted among the NHC
employees

Held:
Yes. Under the present (1987) Constitution, the civil service now
covers only government owned or controlled corporations with original or
legislative charters, that is those created by an act of Congress or by special
law, and not those incorporated under and pursuant to a general legislation.
Since the NHC is a GOCC without an original charter, it is not covered by the
Civil Service Law but by the Labor Code.
Anyway, whether the NHC is covered by Labor Code or the Civil Service
Law is beside the point. The right to unionize or to form organizations is now
explicitly recognized and granted to employees in both the governmental
and the private sectors. The Bill of Rights provides that the right of the
people, including those employed in the public and private sectors, to form
unions, associations or societies for purposes not contrary to law shall not be
abridged.
This guarantee is reiterated in the second paragraph of Section 3,
Article XIII, on Social Justice and Human Rights, which mandates that the
State "shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective
bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful concerted activities, including the
right to strike in accordance with law.
Specifically with respect to government employees, the right to
unionize is recognized in Paragraph (5), Section 2, Article IX-B which provides
that the right to self-organization shall not be denied to government
employees. The rationale for this is that the government for all its sovereign
functions also performs mundane tasks such that it is also an employer in
the true sense of the term. In fact, it is the biggest employer in the nation.