DOLE Secretary & Regional Directors' Power to Determine Existence of Employer-Employee Relationship

Under labor laws, it is not only the Labor Arbiters and the NLRC who are vested with the power to determine the existence of employer-employee relationship.

The DOLE Secretary and the DOLE Regional Directors are possessed of similar power as held in the 2012 en banc Resolution in People’s Broadcasting Service (Bombo Radyo Phils. , Inc. ) v. The Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment. In fact, it was held here that thedetermination by the DOLE Regional Director and the DOLE Secretary of the existence of employer-employee relationship in the exercise of their visitorial and enforcement power under Article 128(b) of the Labor Code is to the exclusion of the Labor Arbiter and the NLRC.