Med-Arbiter's Power to Determine Existence of Employer-Employee Relationship

M. Y. San Biscuits, Inc. v. Laguesma declared that the Med-Arbiter has the authority to determine the employer-employee relationship because it is necessary and indispensable in the exercise of his jurisdiction. It is absurd to suggest that the Med-Arbiter and Secretary of Labor cannot make their own independent finding as to the existence of such relationship and must have to rely and wait for such a determination by the Labor Arbiter or NLRC in a separate proceeding. For then, given a situation where there is no separate complaint filed with the Labor Arbiter, the Med-Arbiter and/or the Secretary of Labor can never decide a certification election case or any labor-management dispute properly brought before them as they have no authority to determine the existence of an employer-employee relationship. Such a proposition is, to say the least, anomalous.