CA orders firm to reinstate 39 trash collectors
The Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered a company to reinstate a group of garbage collectors who were barred from reporting for work following a deadlock in negotiations over the terms of their transfer from their old employer.
In a 24-page decision promulgated on Sept. 15, the appellate court’s 15th Division ordered IPM Construction & Development Corp. to return the 39 “palero” or trash collectors to their former positions and to pay them the aggregate amount of P1.9 million, which represented their salary differentials and 13th month pay.
On top of the P1.9 million, the company was also ordered to give the petitioners their service incentive leave pay and holiday pay, and shoulder 10 percent of the attorney’s fees.
The petitioners were employees of both Select Manpower Resources Corp. and IPM Construction who worked as garbage collectors in various years from 2000 to 2015 for a daily pay of P502. Another worked as a welder for P537 a day.
They said in their complaint that their services were supplied by Select Manpower to IPM Construction, which collects garbage from many cities in Metro Manila.
In 2019, they were informed that Select Manpower would cease to exist, and they would be transferred to IPM Construction.
Petitioners’ demand
The petitioners agreed to their transfer upon the condition that they would each be given a separation pay based on their length of service with Select Manpower.
In a meeting with a certain Ms Haide, they said they were asked to sign a contract of employment with IPM Construction, although no agreement had been reached regarding their demand.
They added that they refused to do so and after a second meeting with still no agreement reached, “they were no longer allowed to work and prevented from reporting.”
This prompted them to file a complaint for illegal dismissal and various money claims, including holiday pay, night shift differential, 13th month pay, damages and violation of Republic Act No. 8188 or the Wage Rationalization Act.
In its ruling, the labor arbiter found both Select Manpower and IPM Construction jointly and severally liable to pay some of the petitioners’ monetary claims.
It declared that there was an employer-employee relationship between IPM Construction and the petitioners based on a legitimate job contracting arrangement.
No illegal dismissal
However, it said the petitioners were not illegally dismissed from employment.
The National Labor Relations Commission, in 2020, similarly found that the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of proving the fact of their dismissal.
While the CA affirmed that the petitioners were not illegally dismissed, it said the labor tribunals gravely abused their discretion when they declared that the two companies were engaged in a legitimate job contracting arrangement.
“We deem that the labor tribunals hastily made such declaration without first evaluating whether the following presumptions have been overcome as opposed to the elements of a labor-only contractor,” the court said in the decision penned by Associate Justice Mary Josephine Lazaro.
