Article 235Issuance of Subpoenas

The Bureau shall have the power to require the appearance of any person or the production of any paper, document or matter relevant to a labor dispute under its jurisdiction, As amended by Sec. 14 of R.A. No. 6715 (1989). See also Executive Order No. 251 creating a National Conciliation Mediation Board which absorbed the conciliation, mediation and voluntary arbitration functions of BLR, and Executive Order No.

216. Sec. 22 of E.O. No. 126 (1987), as amended by E.O. No. 251, created the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) to "absorb the conciliation, mediation, and voluntary arbitration functions of the Bureau of Labor Relations," hence, the terms "Bureau" and "regional office of the Department of Labor" shall be understood to read as "Board" and Regional Branches of the NCMB, respectively.

The former Art. 228, which was expressly repealed by Sec. 16 of B.P. Blg. 130 (1981), read as follows: "Art. 228.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: A new Art. 228 was inserted by Sec. 1 of R.A. No. 10396 (2013), An Act Strengthening Conciliation-Mediation as a Voluntary Mode of Dispute Settlement of all Labor Cases. 37 of 159 either at the request of any interested party or at its own initiative.