Reason for different rule re self-organization of supervisors

While there may be a genuine divergence of opinion as to whether or not union members occupying Level 4 positions are supervisory employees, it is fairly obvious, from a reading of the Labor Code's definition of the term that those occupying Level 5 positions are unquestionably supervisory employees. Supervisory employees, as defined above, are those who, in the interest of the employer, effectively recommend managerial actions if the exercise of such authority is not merely routinary or clerical in nature but require the use of independent judgment. Under the job description for level five employees, such personnel all engineers having a number of personnel under them, not only oversee production of new models but also determine manpower requirements, thereby influencing important hiring decisions at the highest levels. This determination is neither routine nor clerical but involves the independent assessment of factors affecting production, which in turn affect decisions to hire or transfer workers. The use of independent judgment in making the decision to hire, fire or transfer in the identification of manpower requirements would be greatly impaired if the employee's loyalties are torn between the interests of the union and the interests of management. A supervisory employee occupying a level five position would therefore find it difficult to objectively identify the exact manpower requirements dictated by production demands.This is precisely what the Labor Code, in requiring separate unions among rank-and-file employees on one hand, and supervisory employees on the other, seeks to avoid. The rationale behind the Code's exclusion of supervisors from unions of rank-and-file employees is that such employees, while in the performance of supervisory functions, become the alter ego of management in the making and the implementing of key decisions at the sub-managerial level. Certainly, it would be difficult to find unity or mutuality of interests in a bargaining unit consisting of a mixture of rank-and-file and supervisory employees. And this is so because the fundamental test of a bargaining unit's acceptability is whether or not such a unit will best advance to all employees within the unit the proper exercise of their collective bargaining rights. The Code itself has recognized this, in preventing supervisory employees from joining unions of rank-and-file employees. [Toyota Motor Phil. Corp. v. Toyota Motor Phil. Corp. Labor Union, G.R. No. 121084 (1997)]