70 Phil.

340
Antamok Goldfields Mining Company v. Court of Industrial Relations

FACTS

The National Labor Union, representing the workers of Antamok Goldfield Mining Company,
sent a letter to management demanding higher pay and better working conditions.
Management accepted some of their demands and rejected the others. Consequently the
workers went on strike. The Department of Labor intervened and an amicable settlement
between the parties was entered into. Despite this, another strike was subsequently held. A
stoning incident occurred which resulted in the dismissal of forty-five workers. The matter was
heard in the Court of Industrial Relations (CIR) where witnesses for both petitioners and
respondents testified. The CIR ordered one of its special agents to proceed to the premises of
the mines and to conduct further investigation. " The investigation disclosed that the precipitate
and unwarranted dismissal of the forty-five men after the incident seems to have been spurred
by an over anxious desire on the part of the company to get rid of these men. It was also found
out that more than 400 workers of different classes among them, mockers, miners, timbermen,
trammers and capataces coming from different mines in the region have been employed by
Antamok as fresh laborers and that almost all, if not all, of these men are not members of the
the National Labor Union, Inc." The CIR ruled that the discharges and indefinite suspensions
were made by Antamok without first securing the consent of the CIR in violation of a previous
order enjoining them from discharging any laborer involved in the dispute without just cause
and without previous authority of the Court. Antamok insists in its right of selecting the men
that it should employ and that in the exercise of this right it should not be restrained or
interfered with by the CIR.

ISSUE:

May the CIR order the payment of wages to the 55 retired