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33 Ateneo L.J. 9 (1989)

handle is hein.journals/ateno33 and id is 1 raw text is: 



    GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES HAVE NO RIGHT TO STRIKE


                            By   Sen. Ambrosio Padilla

     The Manila Times issue of March 20, 1987 published an item, entitled Strike fever hits gov't
offices -

          STRIKE  fever has hit a number of government offices for the past few weeks.

          The newest strikes were staged yesterday by personnel of the Southern Tagalog
     regional office of the Department  of Agriculture and  the National Science and
     Technology Authority (NSTA). (p. 1)

     The news  item mentions various government offices, such as Western Mindanao regional
office of Department of Natural Resourtes, forestry bureau in Quezon City and Zamboanga City,
NSTA   agcncies, the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Resource Research and Development
(PCARRD),   National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), Philippine Invention Develop-
ment Institute (PIDI), Science Promotion Institute (SPI), National Institute of Science and Technol-
ogy (NIST), Materials Science Research Institute (MSRI) and Special Projects Services (SPS) (pp.
1-2, The Manila Times, March 20, 1987).
     My  legal article entitled The New Constitution on the Rights to Association, Collective Bar-
 gaining and Strike, dated December 24, 1986, submits that the right of the people to form
 associations includes employees in the publiand private sectors (Sec. 8, Art. III, Bill of Rights), but
 the right to strike in accordance with law (Sec. 3, Art. XIII, on Labor under Social Justice and
 HumanRights)  is not extended to government employees under the civil service law (Sec. 2 (1), Art.
 IX). My article concludes:

           The right to strike is not recognized to civil service employees, for the functions of
      government, which are public and governmental, must not be impaired nor prejudiced.
      The suspension of public services, however temporary, is against or inimical to the
      national interest.'

           The new Constitution provides in Art. III, sec. 8 -

           Sec. 8. The right of the people, including those employed in the public and private
      sectors, to form unions, associations, or societies for puiposes not contrary to law shall
      not be abridged.

    ' The right to self-organization shall not be denied to government employees   (Art. IX, sec. 2
 (5). The Civil Service (Art. IX - B) provides:

           Sec. 2. (1) The civil service embraces all branches, subdivisions, instrumentalities,
      and agencies of the Govemment, including government-owned or controlled corpora-
      tions with original charters.

      There must be a distinction between governmental and proprietary functions. The Supreme
 Court interpreting similar provisions of the 1973 Constitution stated in the case of Alliance of
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