7. Mandatory Activities

Mandatory Activities

Concept

Union membership carries duties as well as rights. A union may organize activities to pursue collective bargaining and its members’ welfare, but it cannot treat every activity it sponsors as compulsory. The authority for a particular requirement must be distinguished from the union’s general power to act for its members. (Art. 242, Labor Code)¹ (Art. 241, Labor Code)²

Governing provisions

The Labor Code recognizes a legitimate labor organization’s right to represent its members in collective bargaining and to undertake lawful activities benefiting the organization and its members, including cooperative, housing, and welfare projects. It also protects members through rules on union fees, financial reporting, elections, and participation in major policy decisions. (Art. 242, Labor Code)¹ (Art. 241, Labor Code)²

Requisites / Rules

• Identify the activity and its basis. Determine whether the obligation arises under the Labor Code or the union’s constitution and by-laws. The union’s general authority to conduct beneficial projects does not, by itself, establish that each member must personally participate in them. (Art. 242, Labor Code)¹ (Labor Code, Article 250)
• Respect membership rights. Officers must provide members full and detailed reports of financial transactions as provided in the union’s constitution and by-laws. Members directly elect their officers by secret ballot at the prescribed intervals. (Art. 241, Labor Code)²
• Apply the proper procedure to major policy. Members determine a question of major policy affecting the entire membership by secret ballot after due deliberation. If the nature of the organization or force majeure makes that ballot impractical, the board of directors may decide for the members. (Art. 241, Labor Code)²
• Do not impose arbitrary financial burdens. A union may collect reasonable dues and contributions for authorized purposes, including labor education, welfare, a strike fund, and cooperative undertakings; it may not impose arbitrary or excessive initiation fees or arbitrary, excessive, or oppressive fines and forfeitures. (RA 6715, Sec. 33)³ (Art. 241, Labor Code)²

Distinctions

Union activity is not the same as compulsory personal participation. The union’s power to undertake a lawful project establishes that it may pursue the project, not that every member can automatically be ordered to join it. Likewise, authority to collect reasonable contributions is a separate question from whether a particular payroll deduction satisfies check-off requirements. (Art. 242, Labor Code)¹ (RA 6715, Sec. 33)³ (Labor Code, Article 250)

Key doctrines

Approval of a financial burden must be proved when the law requires membership approval. In Peninsula Employees Union v. Esquivel, the Court held that increased union dues or agency fees could not be collected without direct, independent, and credible proof of membership approval. (Peninsula Employees Union (Peu) v. Esquivel, G.R. No. 218454, 1 December 2016)⁴

Bar tip

When asked whether an activity is “mandatory,” first identify who must act—the union, its officers, or an individual member. Then test the claimed obligation against the Labor Code, the union’s constitution and by-laws, and the applicable membership-approval rule. (Art. 242, Labor Code)¹ (Art. 241, Labor Code)² (Labor Code, Article 250)