SECTION 1. Definition of terms. —
(a) "Commission" means the National Labor Relations Commission.
(b) "Bureau" means the Bureau of Labor Relations and/or the Industrial Relations Division in the Regional Offices of the Department of Labor and Employment.
(c) "Board" means the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.
(d) "Code" means the Labor Code of the Philippines, as amended.
(e) "Employer" includes any person acting in the interest of an employer, directly or indirectly. The term shall not include any labor organization or any of its officers or agents except when acting as employer.
(f) "Employee" includes any person in the employ of a particular employer. The term shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer, unless the Code so explicitly states. It shall include any individual whose work has ceased as a result of or in connection with any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice if he has not obtained any other substantially equivalent and regular employment.
(g) "Labor Organization" means any union or association of employees which exists in whole or in part for the purpose of collective bargaining or of dealing with employers concerning terms and conditions of employment.
(h) "Local Union" means any labor organization operating at the enterprise level.
(i) "National Union/Federation" means any labor organization with at least ten (10) locals or chapters each of which must be a duly recognized collective bargaining agent.
(j) "Legitimate Labor Organization" means any labor organization duly registered with the Department of Labor and Employment and includes any branch, local or affiliate thereof.
(k) "Company Union" means any labor organization whose formation, function or administration has been assisted by any act defined as unfair labor practice by the Code.
(l) "Bargaining Representative" means a legitimate labor organization or any duly authorized officer or agent of such organization whether or not employed by the employer.
(m) "Unfair Labor Practice" means any unfair labor practice as expressly defined in the Code.
(n) "Labor or Industrial Dispute" includes any controversy or matter concerning terms or conditions of employment or the association or representation of persons in negotiating the fixing, maintaining, changing or arranging of terms and conditions of employment regardless of whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relationship of employers and employees.
(o) "Managerial Employee" is one who is vested with powers or prerogatives to lay down and execute management policies and/or to hire, transfer, suspend, layoff, recall, discharge, assign or discipline employees. Supervisory employees are those who, in the interest of the employer, effectively recommend such managerial actions if the exercise of such authority is not merely routinary or clerical in nature but require the use of independent judgment. All employees not falling within any of the above definitions are considered rank-and-file employees for purposes of this Book.
(p) "Voluntary Arbitrator" means any person accredited by the Board as such, or any person named or designated in the collective bargaining agreement, by the parties to act as their voluntary arbitrator, or one chosen, with or without the assistance of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board, pursuant to a selection procedure agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement, or any official that may be authorized by the Secretary of Labor and Employment to act as voluntary arbitrator upon the written request and agreement of the parties to a labor dispute.
(q) "Strike" means any temporary stoppage of work by the concerted action of employees as a result of a labor or industrial dispute.
(r) "Strike-Breaker" means any person who obstructs, impedes, or interferes with by force, violence, coercion, threats or intimidation any peaceful picketing by employees during any labor controversy affecting wages, hours or conditions of work or in the exercise of the right of self-organization or collective bargaining.
(s) "Strike Area" means the establishment, warehouse, depots, plants or offices, including the sites or premises used as run-away shops, of the employer struck against, as well as the immediate vicinity actually used by picketing strikers in moving to and fro before all points of entrance to and exits from said establishment.
(t) "Lockout" means the temporary refusal of an employer to furnish work as a result of a labor or industry dispute.
(u) "Internal Union Dispute" includes all disputes or grievances arising from any violation of or disagreement over any provision of the constitution and by-laws of a union, including any violation of the rights and conditions of union membership provided for in this Code.
(v) "Appeal" means the elevation by an aggrieved party of any decision, order or award of a lower body to a higher body, by means of a pleading which includes the assignment of errors, memorandum of arguments in support thereof, and the reliefs prayed for. A mere notice of appeal, therefore, does not constitute the appeal as herein defined and understood, and shall not stop the running of the period for perfecting an appeal.
(w) "Perfection of an Appeal" includes the filing within the prescribed period, of the memorandum of appeal containing, among others, the assignment of error/s, the argument in support thereof, the reliefs sought and posting of the appeal bond.
(x) "Certification Election" means the process of determining, through secret ballot, the sole and exclusive bargaining agent of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit, for purposes of collective bargaining.
(y) "Consent Election" means the election voluntarily agreed upon by the parties to determine the issue of majority representation of all the workers in the appropriate collective bargaining unit.
(z) "Run-Off" refers to an election between the labor unions receiving the two (2) higher number of voters when a certification election which provides for three (3) or more choices results in no choice receiving a majority of the valid votes cast, where the total number of votes for all contending unions is at least fifty percent (50%) of the number of votes cast.
(aa) "Registration of Agreement" refers to the filing of the collective bargaining agreement with the Regional Office or the Bureau accompanied by verified proof of posting and ratification and payment of fee.
(bb) "Organized Establishment" refers to a firm or company where there is a recognized or certified exclusive bargaining agent.
(cc) "Registration Proceedings" refer to proceedings involving the application for registration of labor organizations.
(dd) "Cancellation Proceeding" is the process leading to the revocation of the registration certificate of a labor organization after due process.
(ee) "Hearing Officers" are officers appointed/designated in the Regional Office and authorized to hear and decide cases under Section 2 of Republic Act No. 6715 and whose decision is appealable to the Commission.
(ff) "Union Accounts Examiners" are officials in the Bureau or the Industrial Relations Division in the Regional Office empowered to audit books of accounts of the union.
(gg) "Representation Officer" refer to a person duly authorized to conduct and supervise certification elections in accordance with Rule VI of this Book.
(hh) "Term of Office" means the tenure of office of elected officials of a labor organization which is for a fixed period of five (5) years.
(ii) "Cabo" refers to a person or group or persons or to a labor group which, in the guise of a labor organization, supplies workers to an employer, with or without any monetary or other consideration whether in the capacity of an agent of the employer or as an ostensible independent contractor.
(jj) "Collective Bargaining Agreement" refers to the negotiated contract between a legitimate labor organization and the employer concerning wages, hours of work and all other terms and conditions of employment in a bargaining unit, including mandatory provisions for grievances and arbitration machineries.
(kk) "Med-Arbiter" is an official in the Regional Office authorized to hear, conciliate, mediate and decide representation cases, internal union and inter-union disputes.
(ll) "Administrator" refers to the Administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration or the National Conciliation and Mediation Board as the context so indicates.
