No. L-15422.
November 30, 1962.
P- National
Development Co.
R- CIR,
National Textile Workers Union
Art. 85 - Meal Periods
Facts:
GOCC NDC employed 4 shifts of work: a.
8am-4pm, b. 6am-2pm, c. 2pm-10pm, d. 10pm-6am. It credited the workers the 1-hour mealtime with
8 hours of work for each shift and paid them for the same number of hours. But since
1953, it credited those workers in one shift, who were required to continue
working until the next shift, only 6 hours of work for overtime work excluding
the mealtime periods in computing compensation.
The Union maintained the opposite view.
The CIR held that mealtime should be counted in the determination of overtime
work.
Issue:
WoN the mealtime breaks should be
considered working time.
Ruling:
Yes. Mealtime breaks should be
counted as working time for purposes of overtime compensation because work
therein was continuous, and employees and laborers were not permitted to rest
completely.
Sec. 1, Com. Act No. 444, as amended,
provides:
“The legal working day for any
person employed by another shall be of not more than eight hours daily. When
the work is not continuous, the time during which the laborer is not working
and can leave his working place and can rest completely shall not be counted.”
In this case, the CIR’s finding that
work in the petitioner company was continuous and did not permit employees and
laborers to rest completely has basis in evidence and is following our earlier
rulings.
Thus, the mealtime breaks are compensable.
NB
– CIR has jurisdiction over claims for overtime compensation when the following
requisites are complied with:
a)
there
must exist between the parties an employer-employee relationship or the
claimant must seek his reinstatement; and
the controversy must relate to a case certified
by the President to the CIR as one involving national interest, or must arise
either under the Eight-Hour Labor Law, or under the Minimum Wage Law.