Police Power as the Basis

- the power of the govt to enact laws, w/in

Constitutional limits to promote the order,
safety, health, morals & general welfare of
society
- power inherent in govt to protect itself &
all its constituents, & for this purpose to
hold the govt immune so far as necessary,
from any limitatins imposed in the past.
- An imposition of restraint upon liberty or
property in order to foster the common
good.
Birth of the LC
Blas Ople - father of the LC
LC designed to be a dynamic & growing body of
laws w/c will reflect continually the lessons of
practical application & experience
7 Principles Underlying the code
1. Labor relations must be made both
responsive & responsible to national devt
2. Labor laws/labor relations during a period
of national emergency must substitute
rationality for confrontation; ?strikes or
lockouts give way to a rational process w/c
is arbitration
3. Laggard justice in the labor field is
injurious to the workers, the EERS & the
public; labor justice can be made
expeditious w/o sacrificing due process.
4. Manpower devt & EENT must be regarded
as a major dimension of labor policy, for
there can be no real equality of bargaining
power under conditions of severe mass
unemployment.
5. There is a global labor market available to
qualified Filipinos, esp those who are
unemployed or whose EENT is tantamount
to unemployment bcoz of their very little
earnings.
6. Labor laws must command adequate
resources & acquire a capable machinery
for effective & sustained implementation;
when labor laws cannot be enforced, both
EERS & the workers are penalized, & only
a corrupt few (those who are in charge of
implementation) may get the reward they
don t deserve.
7. There shld be popular participation in
national policy-making through what is
now called tripartism.
Some Labor Laws before the Passage of the Code
? Act #1874: EER S Liability Act,
? Act #2549: prohibited payment of wages
in non-cash form
? Act #2071: prohibiting slavery/involuntary
servitude
? R #1054: requiring emergency medical
treatmt for EES
? CA # 444: 8-hr labor law
? CA #103 created the Court of Industrial
Relations (CIR)
? Pd #21 created the NLRC ( to investigate,
decide & settle all disputes bet EERS &
EES
? RA # 875: The Industrial Peace Act (the
Magna Carta of Labor)
? RA #946: Blue Sunday Law forbids
commercial, industrial or agri enterprises
to open on any Sunday, Xmas Day, New
Year s Day, Holy Thurs & Good Friday.
? RA #1787: The Termination Pay Law
enumerated the just causes for
terminating an EENT w/o a definite period
and allowed EERS to separate an EE by
serving a 15-day notice per yr of service
or, by paying an equivalent separation
pay.
Significance of Other Laws
1. Foreign Decisions numerous LC
provisions are substantially similar to the
Industrial Peace Act
2. The Civil Code describes the nature of
labor mgt relations:
The relations bet capital & labor are not
merely contractual. They are so impressed
w/ public interest that labor contracts
must yield to the common good. ?such
contracts are subj. to the special laws on
labor unions, collective bargaining, strikes
& lockouts, closed shop, wages, working
conditions, hrs of labor & similar subjs.
Art 1700
Neither capital nor labor shall act
oppressively against the other, or impair