G.R. No. 114974 : June 16, 2004
FACTS:
Standard Chartered Bank (the Bank, for brevity) is a foreign banking corporation doing business in the Philippines. The Bank and the Union signed a five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
Prior to the expiration of the 3 year period, the Union initiates negotiation. Divinagracia, president of the Union submitted proposals, then the Bank sent counterproposals. The parties agreed to set meetings to settle their differences on the proposed CBA. Divinagracia, suggested that the bank lawyers should be excluded from the negotiating team. The Bank acceded but suggested to Divinagracia that Jose P. Umali, Jr., the President of the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), the federation to which the Union was affiliated, be excluded from the Union’s negotiating panel. However, Umali was retained as a member thereof.