Belo beauty clinic chain told to pay sacked worker P3M
The Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed the ruling of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) ordering the Belo Medical Group (BMG) to pay a former employee P3 million in back wages over her constructive dismissal.
In a 35-page decision, the CA’s Special Fourth Division agreed with the findings of the NLRC that Marie Angelie Macatual’s “unbearable condition and hostile environment left her with no choice but to resign.”
However, it absolved BMG president Victoria Belo of solidary liability and found only the company and Agnes Lopez, chief executive officer and general manager, liable for the employee’s dismissal.
“It can be easily discerned that the series of unfair and hostile acts and charges of the petitioners have made the employment conditions of Macatual uncongenial and intolerable,” the CA said in a decision written by Associate Justice Eduardo Ramos Jr.
“The conclusion is all too clear that petitioners fostered a working environment that was hostile and inequitable that compelled Macatual to give up her employment, especially in light of the lumped-up charges against her which were either too trivial or already settled,” it added.
The petition for certiorari filed by BMG, Belo, and Lopez, stemmed from Macatual’s complaints of constructive dismissal, forced resignation, non-payment of salary, service incentive leave pay, 13th month pay, separation pay, moral and exemplary damages, and attorney’s fees.
Macatual alleged, among others, that she was subjected by Belo as a “guinea pig” of BMG’s new machine, that Belo gave conflicting instructions to her and her staff, and that Belo’s husband, Hayden Kho, usurped her authority as marketing management head.
The human resources head on June 6, 2019, issued a show-cause notice against the employee, charging her with fraudulent acts, willful breach of trust and confidence, disclosure of confidential information, conflict of interest, abuse of authority, and negligence/inefficiency.
Macatual argued that the notice raised various allegations which were contrived to make it appear that there was a just cause for her termination.
She resigned from her post nine days after, or on June 17, 2019, and filed the constructive dismissal complaint against the petitioners a month later.
Both the labor arbiter and NLRC found the company guilty of constructive dismissal, prompting the company to file the petition before the appellate court.
“After a careful examination of the records, this Court agrees with the NLRC that her unbearable condition and hostile environment left her with no choice but to resign,” the CA said.
“Gleaned from the foregoing, the relationship between petitioners and Macatual is strained and reinstatement would no longer be desirable. Thus, the grant of separation pay is sustained,” it added.
The appeals court also sustained the NLRC’s ruling that Lopez, as a general manager, was solidarily liable with BMG to Macatual since she was the one who signed the Show Cause Notice which charged Macatual administratively with matters that were either “already long settled or too frivolous.”
“However, as to Belo’s solidary liability, we find that aside from the narration of Macatual, there is no proof on record that she acted maliciously by humiliating Macatual, nor that she took part in making a series of unfair and hostile acts and charges against Macatual that made her continued employment conditions unbearable,” it said.
