[G.R. No. 157680 October 8, 2008] EQUIPMENT TECHNICAL SERVICES or JOSEPH JAMES DEQUITO, petitioners, vs.

COURT OF APPEALS, ALEX ALBINO, REY ALBINO, JULIUS ABANES, MIGUEL ALINAB, CHRISTOPHER BIOL, NELSON CATONG, RENATO DULOT, FLORO PACUNDO, MARCELITO GAMAS, REYNALDO LIMA, SAMMY MESAGAL, ERNESTO PADILLA, and CONRADO SULIBAGA, respondents. FACTS ETS is primarily engaged in the business of sub-contracting plumbing woks of on-going building construction. Among its clients was Uniwide. On various occasions involving different projects, ETS hired the services of private respondents as pipe fitters, plumbers or threaders. ETS experienced financial difficulties when its client, Uniwide, failed to pay the forner for the plumbing work being done at Uniwide's Coastal Mall. As a result, ETS was only able to pay its employees 13th months pay equivalent to two weeks' salary. Due to non-payment of the balance of the employees 13th month pay, they filed a complaint before the NLRC against ETS. A complaint for illegal dismissal and payment of money claims were later on filed against ETS when they were refused work in another ETS project (Richville Project) on the ground that they refused to sign individual employement conracts with ETS. The dismissed employees raised that they were regular employees of ETS. ETS, however counters such claim and said that the dismissed employees were only contractual/project employees engaged for different projects of the company and that they were not illegally dismissed as they were hired on a per project basis. The LA held that the dismissed employees were regular employees of ETS and not only contractual or project-based employees and that there was illegal dismissal. The NLRC reversed the decision of the LA and that there was no illegal dismissal. ISSUE Are the respondents regular employees of ETS? LAW Article 280 of the Labor Code RULING The principal test for determining whether an employee is properly characterized as project employee, as distinguished from regular employee, is whether or not the project employee was assigned to carry out a specific project or undertaking, the duration and scope of which were specified at the time the employees were engaged for that project. And as Article 280 of the Labor Code, defining a regular employee vis--vis a project employee, would have it: Art. 280. Regular and casual employment. The provisions of written agreement to the contrary notwithstanding and regardless of the oral agreement of the parties, an employment shall be deemed to be regular where the employee has been engaged to perform activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer, except where the employment has been fixed for a specific project or undertaking the completion or termination of which has been determined at the time of the engagement of the employee x x x.

It bears to stress at the outset that ETS admits hiring or employing private respondents to perform plumbing works for various projects. Given this postulate, regular employment may reasonably be presumed and it behooves ETS to prove otherwise, that is, that the employment in question was contractual in nature ending upon the expiration of the term fixed in the contract or for a specific project or undertaking. But the categorical finding of the CA, confirmatory for the most part of that of the labor arbiter, is that not a single written contract of employment fixing the terms of employment for the duration of the Uniwide project, or any other project, was submitted by ETS despite the latters allegations that private respondents were merely contractual employees. Records of payroll and other pertinent documents, such as job contracts secured by ETS showing that private respondents were hired for specific projects, were also not submitted by ETS. Moreover, if private respondents were indeed employed as project employees, petitioners should have had submitted a report of termination every time their employment was terminated owing to the completion of each plumbing project. As correctly held by the CA in its Amended Decision, citing Tomas Lao Construction v. NLRC, ETS failure to report the employment termination and file the necessary papers after every project completion tends to support the claim of private respondents about their not being project employees. Under Policy Instruction No. 20, Series of 1977, the report must be made to the nearest public office employment. Private respondents may have initially been hired for specific projects or undertaking of petitioner ETS and, hence, may be classified as project employees. Their repeated rehiring to perform tasks necessary to the usual trade or business of ETS changed the legal situation altogether, for in the later instance, their continuous rehiring took them out from the scope of workers coterminus with specific projects and had made them regular employees. Parenthetically, petitioners assertion that there can be no illegal dismissal of project employees inasmuch as they are not entitled to security of tenure is inaccurate. The constitutionally-protected right of labor to security of tenure covers both regular and project workers. Their termination must be for lawful cause and must be done in a way which affords them proper notice and hearing. Decision of the Labor Arbiter was affirmed and ordered ETS to reinstate respondents to their former positions, without loss of rank and seniority rights with backwages from the date of dismissal until reinstated. OPINION

[G.R. No. 163033 October 2, 2009] SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION, Petitioner, vs. EDUARDO L. TEODOSIO, Respondent. FACTS On Sept. 5, 1991, Teodisio was hired by SMC as casual forklift operator in Bacolod city brewery. He continuously worked until March 1992 after which he was asked to rest for a while. A month after, sometime in April 1992, Teodisio was rehired to the same position and served for 5 to 6 months and again asked to rest. After 3 weeks he was again rehired, and he continued to work until Aug. 1993. On Aug 1993 he was made to sign an Employment with a fixed Period contract by SMC where it was stipulated that Teodisios employment would be from Aug 7, 1993 to Aug 30, 1995 or upon cessation of the instability/ fluctuation on the market demand, whichever comes first. Teodisio worked at the plant without interruption. On Mar 20,1995, Teodisio was transferred to the bottling section as a case piler. In a letter dated April 10,1995, Teodisio formally informed SMC of his opposition to the transfer. He asserted that would be more effective as a forklift operator because he was employed as such for more than 3 years. He requested to be transferred to his former position but SMC did not answer. In an undated letter, Teodisio informed SMC that he was applying for the vacant position of bottling crew because he wanted to become a regular employee of SMC. SMC notified Teodisio that his employment shall be terminated in compliance with the Employment with a Fixed period contract. SMC explained that it was due to the reorganization and streamlining operation. Teodisio expressed his dismay for the dismissal in a letter where he informed SMC, despite of being compelled to receive separation pay and forced to sign a waiver, this does not mean that he was waiving his right to question his dismissal and to claim employment benefits as provided in CBA and company policies. Thereafter Teodisio signed a Receipt and Release document in favor of SMC and accepted his separation pay and thereby releasing all his claims with SMC. Teodisio filed a complaint against SMC before the NLRC for illegal dismissal and underpayment of wages and other benefits. LA dismissed the complaint for lack of merit. The said contract of employment with fixed period was a legitimate exercise of management prerogative and termination is in accordance of employment contract. Also he is not a regular employee, therefore not entitled to benefit under CBA. Before the NLRC, affirmed the LAs decision. In the CA, it granted the petition to annul and set aside the decision of NLRC. CA ratiocinated that the Employment with a Fixed period contract was just a scheme of SMC to circumvent the respondents security of tenure and concluded that before Teodisio signed the employment contracts he already attained the status of a regular employee. His transfer and dismissal is tainted with bad faith and declared the Receipt and Release document signed, since the law proscribes any agreement whereby a worker agrees to receive less compensation than what he is entitled to recover. It also added that a deed of release or quitclaim cannot bar an employee from demanding benefits. SMC filed for MR but was denied and hence this petition. ISSUE Is Teodisio a regular employee? LAW Article 280 of the Labor Code RULING Under Art. 280, Labor Code, there are 2 kinds of regular employees: 1) regular employees by nature of work refers to those employees who perform a particular activity which is necessary or

desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer, regardless of their length or service 2) regular employees by years of service refers to employees who have been performing the job, regardless of the nature, for at least a year, even if continuous or merely intermittent, the law deems the repeated and continuing need for its performance as sufficient evidence of the necessity, if not indispensability, of that activity to the business. The court is convinced that Teodisio has attained the status of regular employee long before he executed the employment contract with a fixed period. Teodisio was initially hired by SMC on Sept. 5, 1992, rehired for the same position on April 1992 which lasted for 5 to 6 months, after 3 weeks rehired again until August 1993. When he signed the Employment with fixed period contract. He has already been in the employment of SMC for 23 months. The labor code provides that a casual employee shall be considered as regular employee if said causal employee has rendered at least one year of service regardless of the fact that such service may be continuous or broken. The nature of Teodisios work is necessary for business in which SMC is engaged. SMC maintains a brewery while Teodisio is a forklift operator whose task is to lift and transfer pallets and pile them from the bottling section to piling area. SMC also wanted the court to believe that its full automation o the brewery and new marketing distribution systems resulted the reduction of personnel and termination of employees with a fixed period contract. However after installation of automated palletizers, SMC did not leave the position of forklift operator vacant. This shows the necessity and indispensability of hiring a forklift operator to the business of SMC. Teodisio is a regular employee of SMC and employment contract with a fixed period was meant only to circumvent respondents right to security of tenure and therefore invalid. In the case of Brent School, Inc. v. Zamora, the court made it clear that a contract of employment stipulating a fixed term is invalid if it can be shown that it was executed with intention of circumventing an employees right to security of tenure and should thus be ignored. Moreover, that the period that was imposed to preclude the acquisition of tenurial security by the employee should struck down as contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order and public policy. Teodisio having gained a status of a regular employee is entitled to security of tenure and could only be dismissed on just or authorized causes after he has been accorded due process. The termination of respondents employment based on the fixed contract and giving Teodisio opportunity to become a regular employee when he was transferred to bottling section do not constitute just or authorized cause. The receipt and release document signed by Teodisio wherein he is barred from demanding benefits to which he is legally entitled are frowned upon by the court because it is contrary to public policy. The burden of proving that the quitclaim or waiver was voluntarily entered rests on the employer. SMC failed to discharge this burden, in effect Teodisio did not waive his right to question his dismissal and claims to employment benefits. OPINION

[G.R. No. 164315 July 3, 2009] ALCATEL PHILIPPINES, INC., and YOLANDA DELOS REYES, Petitioners, vs. RENE R. RELOS, Respondent. FACTS Alcatel is a domestic corporation primarily engaged in the business of installation and supply of telecommunications equipment. The company offered respondent Relos temporary employment as

Estimator/Draftsman Civil Works to assist in the preparation of manholes and conduit design for the proposal preparation for a project for a period of approximately 1 month. When Alcatel undertook the

same project in the Eastern Visayas and Eastern Mindanao for PLDT, Relos was again given temporary employment as Civil Works Inspector for another period of more than one month. Upon the expiration of his contract, Relos was again offered temporary employment this time as Civil Works Engineer for a certain period. He was offered temporary employment in the same capacity for 5 more times and the company renewed respondents contract 2 more times. Thereafter, Alcatel informed respondent through a letter that the civil works portion of the project was near completion; however, the remaining works encountered certain delays and had not been completed as scheduled. Alcatel then extended respondents employment for another 3 months. Alcatel informed Relos that the project was nearing completion and that his contract with Alcatel would expire on the same day. He was also asked to settle all his accountabilities with the company and advised him that he would be called if it has future projects that require his expertise. Relos filed a complaint for illegal dismissal, separation pay, unpaid wages, unpaid overtime pay, damages, and attorneys fees against Alcatel, alleging that he was a regular employee and that he was dismissed during the existence of the project. The LA declared that respondent was a regular employee of Alcatel and that he was illegally dismissed. The NLRC reversed the LAs decision. The CA set aside the NLRCs decision and held that Relos was a regular employee of Alcatel. ISSUE Whether or not respondent was a regular employee of Alcatel. LAW Article 280 of the Labor Code RULING Relos is not a regular employee. He is only a project employee. The specific projects for which respondent was hired and the periods of employment were specified in his employment contracts. The services he rendered, the duration and scope of each employment are clear indications that respondent was hired as a project employee. The principal test for determining whether a particular employee is a project employee or a regular employee is whether the project employee was assigned to carry out a specific project or undertaking, the duration and scope of which were specified at the time the employee is engaged for the project. Project may refer to a particular job or undertaking that is within the regular or usual business of the employer, but which is distinct and separate and identifiable as such from the undertakings of the company. Such job or undertaking begins and ends at determined or determinable times. The specific projects for which respondent was hired and the periods of employment were specified in his employment contracts. The services he rendered, the duration and scope of each employment are clear

indications that respondent was hired as a project employee. Relos contention that he became a regular employee because he was continuously rehired by Alcatel every termination of his contract is untenable. In Maraguinot, Jr. v. NLRC, A project employee or a member of a work pool may acquire the status of a regular employee when the following concur: (1) There is a continuous rehiring of project employees even after the cessation of a project; (2) The tasks performed by the alleged project employee are vital, necessary and indispensable to the usual business or trade of the employer. While respondent performed tasks that were clearly vital, necessary and indispensable to the usual business or trade of Alcatel, respondent was not continuously rehired by Alcatel after the cessation of every project. Alcatels continuous rehiring of respondent in various capacities from February 1991 to December 1995 was done entirely within the framework of one and the same project the PLDT 1342 project The employment of a project employee ends on the date specified in the employment contract. Therefore, respondent was not illegally dismissed but his employment terminated upon the expiration of his employment contract. OPINION

[GR. No. 178827 March 4, 2009] ESCASINAS AND SINGCO, Petitioners, Respondents. FACTS

VS

SHANGRILA

MACTAN

ISLAND

RESORT,

Registered nurses Jeromie D. Escasinas and Evan Rigor Singco (petitioners) were engaged in 1999 and 1996, respectively, by Dr. Jessica Joyce R. Pepito (respondent doctor) to work in her clinic at respondent Shangri-las Mactan Island Resort (Shangri-la) in Cebu of which she was a retained physician. In late 2002, petitioners filed with the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) a complaint for regularization, underpayment of wages, non-payment of holiday pay, night shift differential and 13th month pay differential against respondents, claiming that they are regular employees of Shangri-la. Shangri-la claimed, however, that petitioners were not its employees but of respondent doctor whom it retained via Memorandum of Agreement. Respondent doctor for her part claimed that petitioners were already working for the previous retained physicians of Shangri-la before she was retained by Shangri-la; and that she maintained petitioners services upon their request.

Labor Arbiter Ernesto F. Carreon, declared petitioners to be regular employees of Shangri-la. The Arbiter thus ordered Shangri-la to grant them the wages and benefits due them as regular employees from the time their services were engaged. The Arbiter noted that they usually perform work which is necessary and desirable to Shangri-las business; that they observe clinic hours and render services only to Shangri-las guests and employees; that payment for their salaries were recommended to Shangri-las Human Resource Department (HRD); that respondent doctor was Shangri-las in-house physician, hence, also an employee; and that the MOA between Shangri-la and respondent doctor was an insidious mechanism in order to circumvent [the doctors] tenurial security and that of the employees under her.
The NLRC granted Shangri-las and respondent doctors appeal finding that no employer-employee relationship exists between petitioner and Shangri-la. In so deciding, the NLRC held that the Arbiter erred in interpreting Article 157 in relation to Article 280 of the Labor Code, as what is required under Article 157 is that the employer should provide the services of medical personnel to its employees, but nowhere in said article is a provision that nurses are required to be employed; that contrary to the finding of the Arbiter, even if Article 280 states that if a worker performs work usually necessary or desirable in the business of the employer, he cannot be automatically deemed a regular employee; and that the MOA amply shows that respondent doctor was in fact engaged by Shangri-la on a retainer basis, under which she could hire her own nurses and other clinic personnel. Petitioners thereupon brought the case to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the NLRC Decision that no employer-employee relationship exists between Shangri-la and petitioners. ISSUE Are the full time nurses regular employees? LAW Article 157 of the Labor Code Article 280 of the Labor Code RULING Pursuant to Article 157 of the Labor Code, Shangri-la, which employs more than 200 workers, is mandated to furnish its employees with the services of a full-time registered nurse, a part-time

physician and dentist, and an emergency clinic which means that it should provide or make available such medical and allied services to its employees, not necessarily to hire or employ a service provider. The term full-time in Art. 157 cannot be construed as referring to the type of employment of the person engaged to provide the services, for Article 157 must not be read alongside Art. 280 in order to vest employer-employee relationship on the employer and the person so engaged. The phrase services of a full-time registered nurse should thus be taken to refer to the kind of services that the nurse will render in the companys premises and to its employees, not the manner of his engagement. OPINION

[G. R. No. 123938. May 21, 1998] LABOR CONGRESS OF THE PHILIPPINES et al, Petitioners, vs. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION, Respondent. FACTS The 99 persons named as petitioners in this proceeding were rank-and-file employees of respondent Empire Food Products, which hired them on various dates. Petitioners filed against private respondents a complaint for payment of money claim[s] and for violation of labor standard[s] laws. On January 23, 1991, petitioners filed a complaint docketed as NLRC Case No. RAB-III-01-196491 against private respondents for: After the submission by the parties of their respective position papers and presentation of testimonial evidence, Labor Arbiter Ariel C. Santos absolved private respondents of the charges of unfair labor practice, union busting, violation of the memorandum of agreement, underpayment of wages and denied petitioners' prayer for actual, moral and exemplary damages. Labor Arbiter Santos, however, directed the reinstatement of the individual complainants. ISSUE Are the petitioners pakyao or per piece workers and therefore not entitled to benefits as that of a regular employee. LAW Article 280 of the Labor Code RULING As to the other benefits, namely, holiday pay, premium pay, 13th month pay and service incentive leave which the labor arbiter failed to rule on but which petitioners prayed for in their complaint, we hold that petitioners are so entitled to these benefits. Three (3) factors lead us to conclude that petitioners, although piece-rate workers, were regular employees of private respondents. First, as to the nature of petitioners' tasks, their job of repacking snack food was necessary or desirable in the usual business of private respondents, who were engaged in the manufacture and selling of such food products; second, petitioners worked for private respondents throughout the year, their employment not having been dependent on a specific project or season; and third, the length of time that petitioners worked for private respondents. Thus, while petitioners' mode of compensation was on a "per piece basis," the status and nature of their employment was that of regular employees. The Rules Implementing the Labor Code exclude certain employees from receiving benefits such as night time pay, holiday pay, service incentive leave and 13th month pay, inter alia, "field personnel and other employees whose time and performance is unsupervised by the employer, including those who are engaged on task or contract basis, purely commission basis, or those who are paid a fixed amount for performing work irrespective of the time consumed in the performance thereof." Plainly, petitioners as piece-rate workers do not fall within this group. As mentioned earlier, not only did petitioners labor under the control of private respondents as their employer, likewise did petitioners toil throughout the year with the fulfillment of their quota OPINION