(a) Except as provided in Title VII-A, Book V of this Code, as amended, or as may be excepted by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, all issues arising from labor and employment shall be subject to mandatory conciliation-mediation. The labor arbiter or the appropriate DOLE agency or office that has jurisdiction over the dispute shall entertain only endorsed or referred cases by the duly authorized officer.
(b) Any or both parties involved in the dispute may pre-terminate the conciliationmediation proceedings and request referral or endorsement to the appropriate DOLE agency or office which has jurisdiction over the dispute, or if both parties so agree, refer the unresolved issues to voluntary arbitration.
Editor’s notes from DOLE (1)
The former Article 228, which was expressly repealed by Sec. 16 of B.P. Blg. 130 (1981), read as follows: “Art. 228. Indorsement of Cases to Labor Arbiters. – (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this Article, the Labor Arbiter shall entertain only cases endorsed to him for compulsory arbitration by the Bureau or by the Regional Director with a written notice of such indorsement or non-indorsement. The indorsement or non-indorsement of the Regional Director may be appealed to the Bureau within ten (10) working days from receipt of the notice. (b) The parties may, at any time, by mutual agreement, withdraw a case from the Conciliation Section and jointly submit it to a Labor Arbiter, except deadlocks in collective bargaining.” * IMPORTANT: This new Article 228 was inserted by Sec. 1 of R.A. No. 10396 (2013), An Act Strengthening Conciliation-Mediation as a Voluntary Mode of Dispute Settlement for all Labor Cases. See DOLE D.O. No. 151 (2016) for specific regulations.
Text and numbering follow the Department of Labor and Employment's 2022 edition of Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended and renumbered under DOLE Department Advisory No. 01, series of 2015. Former article numbers are shown in brackets. Notes are DOLE's editorial notes. Amendments after that edition are not included. For information and research only, and not legal advice. For certified copies, refer to the Official Gazette or the issuing agency.