G.R. No.
L-1309             July 26, 1948 maximum day of continuous work allowed in
THE SHELL COMPANY OF PHILIPPINE
ISLANDS, LIMITED, appellant, 

vs.
 ISSUE:
NATIONAL LABOR UNION, appellee.
BRIONES, J.:
FACTS:
Acting on the petition of the National Labor
Union, the Industrial Relations Court has
rendered a decision in which, among other
things, obliges the Shell Oil Company of Phil. Is.,
to pay their workers who work at night (after the
sun sets until he gets up the following day)
additional compensation of 50% over their
regular wages if they work day. It seems that the
company needs the night service of a certain
number of workers, because the planes from
abroad often land and take off at night,
necessitating work at night for the supply of
gasoline and lubricants, and other duties. The oil
company has appealed against the decision
through certiorari to rescind it.
The company appellant claims and argues that
not only there is no legal provision to empower
the Industrial Relations Court to order the
payment of additional compensation to workers
who work at night, but on the contrary, the
Commonwealth Act. 444 absolves the employer
of such, where this law only provides where it is
compulsory to pay "overtime" (additional
compensation), and among such cases not
including work at night.
For its part, the union workers' appeal argues
that the option under discussion is part of the
broad powers that Commonwealth Law No. 103
- the organic letter of the Industrial Relations
Court - grants to said court; and that
Commonwealth Law No. 444 that is invoked
does not have any application to the present
case, since it is necessarily limited in scope,
referring particularly and exclusively to the
industrial establishments - the day of 8 hours.
Whether or not the workers of Shell Oil deserve
to be paid night time differential for night time
work rendered required by the operations of the
company beyond the 8-hour work day?
RATIONALE:
Our conclusion is that the labor union under
appeal is right on its part.
SEC. 3. Work may be performed beyond eight
hours a day in case of actual or impending
emergencies caused by serious accidents, fire,
flood, typhoon, earthquake, epidemic, or other
disaster or calamity in order to prevent loss to
life and property or imminent danger to public
safety; or in case urgent work to be performed
on the machines, equipment, or installations in
order to avoid a serious loss which the employer
would otherwise suffer, or some other just cause
of a similar nature; but in all such cases the
laborers and employees shall be entitled to
receive compensation for the overtime work
performed at the same rate as their regular
wages or salary, plus at least twenty-five per
centum additional.
In case of national emergency the government is
empowered to establish rules and regulations for
the operation of the plants and factories and to
determine the wages to be paid the laborers.
SEC. 4. No person, firm, or corporation,
business establishment or place or center of
labor shall compel an employee or laborer to
work during Sundays and legal holidays, unless
he is paid an additional sum of at least twenty-
five per centum of his regular remuneration:
Provided however, That this prohibition shall not
apply to public utilities performing some public
service such as supplying gas, electricity, power,
water, or providing means of transportation or
communication.
The work that the Shell company demands of its
workers is not perhaps an "overtime", in the
sense that this word is used in Le No. 444, but is
a full day of work, also of 8 hours: only which,
instead of being done by day, is done at night. In
other words, the night work in question here is
not only an excess, extension or "overtime" of
regular day work, but it is another type of work,
absolutely independent of the daytime. That is
why there are two shifts: the shift of workers who
work during the day; and the turn of those who
work at night. So it is not surprising that the
legislator has not included this type of work
among the cases of "overtime" indicated in the
aforementioned law No. 444.
There is no possible argument against the
universal fact that regular, normal and ordinary
work is day work, and that night work is very
exceptional and justified only for certain
imperatively unavoidable reasons. For
something humanity has always worked by day.
Reasons for hygiene, medicine, morals, culture,
sociology, establish in common that the work of
nocho has many disadvantages, and when there
is no choice but to do so, it is only fair that it be
better than ordinary to compensate until it is
true. point to the worker of such inconveniences.
Undoubtedly, night work not only in the long run
affects the health of the worker, but also
deprives him of certain things that make life
relatively pleasant, such as, for example, a
complete and uninterrupted rest and certain
times of solace. , leisure or spiritual and cultural
expansion that you might have when you finish
work in the afternoon and during the first hours
of the night. It is said that the worker can rest
during the day after having worked all night;
But can the rest of the day give the body that
tonic and that full reparative effect that only the
natural rest at night can provide? It is also said
that some prefer to work at night under our
scorching weather, thus avoiding the heat of the
day. We fear, however, that this is better spoken
than practiced. We believe that since time
immemorial the universal rule is that man works
at night more for an irremediable need than for
pleasurable convenience.
To the vulgar, universal opinion, we must add the
expert opinion, the specialist criterion. The
opinion of the writers and experts strongly
militates in favor of the thesis that night work is
harder and more expensive than day work,
considering this with marked disgust and
consequently compelling capitalist management
to establish a higher scale of wages as an
incentive for workers to accept it. You could cite
various authorities, but not to extend this paper
too much we opted to transcribe only a few,
namely:
. . . Then, it must be remembered that it is
distinctly unphysiological to turn the night
into day and deprive the body of the
beneficial effects of sunshine. The human
organism revolts against this procedure.
Added to artificial lighting are reversed and
unnatural times of eating, resting, and
sleeping. Much of the inferiority of nightwork
can doubtless be traced to the failure of the
workers to secure proper rest and sleep, by
day. Because of inability or the lack of
opportunity to sleep, nightworkers often
spend their days in performing domestic
duties, joining the family in the midday meal,
'tinkering about the place', watching the
baseball game, attending the theater or
taking a ride in the car. It is not strange that
nightworkers tend to be less efficient than
dayworkers and lose more time. . . (The
Management of Labor Relations, by Watkins &
Dodd, page 524.).
Nightwork - Nightwork has gained a measure of
prominence in the modern industrial system in
connection with continuous industries, that is,
industries in which the nature of the processes
makes it necessary to keep machinery and
equipment in constant operation. Even in
continuous industries the tendency is definitely
in the direction of FOUR shifts of 6 hours each,
with provision for an automatic change of shift
for all workers at stated intervals. Some
discussion has taken place with regard to the
lengths of the period any workers should be
allowed to remain on the night shift.
On the merits of the foregoing, the appeal filed
by certiorari is denied and the judgment of the
Industrial Claims Court is confirmed, with costs
incurred by the appellant. That's how it is
ordered.

A weekly change of shifts is common, specially

where three or four shifts are in operation; in
other cases the change is made fortnightly or
monthly; in still other instances, no alternation is
provided for, the workers remaining on day - or
nightwork permanently, except where temporary
changes are made for individual convenience.

The case against nightwork, then, may be said

to rest upon several grounds. In the first place,
there are the remotely injurious effects of
permanent nightwork manifested in the later
years of the worker's life. Of more immediate
importance to the average worker is the
disarrangement of his social life, including the
recreational activities of his leisure hours and the
ordinary associations of normal family relations.
From an economic point of view, nightwork is to
be discouraged because of its adverse effect
upon efficiency and output. A moral argument
against nightwork in the case of women is that
the night shift forces the workers to go to and
from the factory in darkness. Recent
experiences of industrial nations have added
much to the evidence against the continuation of
nightwork, except in extraordinary circumstances
and unavoidable emergencies. The immediate
prohibition of nightwork for all laborers is hardly
practicable; its discontinuance in the case of
women employees is unquestionably desirable.
'The night was made for rest and sleep and not
for work' is a common saying among wage-
earning people, and many of them dream of an
industrial order in which there will be no night
shift. (Labor Problems, 3rd Edition, pp. 325-328,
by Watkins & Dodd.).

DISPOSITION: