G.R. No. 111988 – 237 SCRA 621 – Labor Law – Labor Standards – Working Conditions and Rest Periods – Holiday Pay – SK Elections
Associated Labor Union entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with AMS Farming Corporation in 1990. The CBA was to be effective from 1990 to 1995. Part of the CBA provides that AMS Farming shall be paying for holiday pay which shall include among others local and national elections. In 1992, the President declared December 4, 1992 as a general election for Sanggunian Kabataan throughout the nation. AMS Farming did not pay any holiday for said day as it argued that said election by any stretch of the imagination cannot be considered as a local election within the meaning of the CBA because not all people can vote in the said election but only qualified youths. The issue was submitted to a voluntary arbitrator (Rosalina Letrondo-Montejo) and the arbiter ruled in favor of AMS Farming.
ISSUE: Whether or not the SK Election held on December 4, 1994 is a holiday.
HELD: Yes. It is in fact a regular election as even defined by the Revised Administrative Code of 1987. It was even announced through the media that such day is a nonworking holiday. Consequently, whether in the context of the CBA or the Labor Code, December 4, 1992 was a holiday for which holiday pay should be paid by AMS Farming Corporation.
