CA rules in favor of PLDT, blocks DOLE order to regularize workers

The Court of Appeals has blocked the Department of Labor and Employment from implementing its order for PLDT Inc. to regularize the telco’s contractual employees, the company said on Monday.

The telecommunications company said it received on Monday a CA decision which is an injunction against Labor department’s regularization orders.

“The Court of Appeals issued a decision in this case last 31 July 2018, a copy of which was received by PLDT’s counsel today,” PLDT said in a statement.

In its final word on the decision, a copy of which was obtained by GMA News Online, the CA noted the plight of the employees.

“We commiserate and appreciate the toil and hardship of the employees affected by this Decision, and recognize that we should view with compassion their inadequately addressed plight. Nevertheless, this sense of compassion should be coupled with a sense of fairness and justice to all the parties concerned,” the decision said.

“Hence, while social justice has an inclination to give protection to the working class, the cause of the labor sector is not upheld at all times as the employer has also a right entitled to respect in the interest of simple fair play.”

The decision was penned by Associate Justice  Edwin D. Sorongon, and Associate Justices Sesinando Villon and Maria Filomena Singh concurred.

Malacañang expressed sadness over the decision even as it hoped for a reversal in the Supreme Court.

“Ang desisyon po ng DOLE ay desisyon ng Executive. Siyempre po nalulungkot kami na binaligtad ng CA ang desisyon, pero umaasa pa rin kami na kapag umabot ito sa Supreme Court ay mananaig pa rin iyong naging naunang desisyon ng DOLE na desisyon ng Ehekutibo,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a press briefing in Davao Occidental.

“We are for the regularization of workers of PLDT,” Roque said.

According to a tweet by GMA Super Radyo dzBB, DOLE is filing a motion for reconsideration before the CA. No further details were given.

DOLE, maghahain ng motion for reconsideration sa desisyon ng Court of Appeals kaugnay sa regularization ng mahigit 7,000 na empleyado ng PLDT. | via @VargasMannysen

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) August 6, 2018

‘Tainted’

On Jan.10, 2018, DOLE ordered PLDT and its contractors to elevate contractual employees to regular employment status.

PLDT appealed the order before the DOLE, but Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III—in a resolution signed on April 24—affirmed the order to regularize over 7,000 employees.

PLDT contested the DOLE order before the appeals court in May, claiming it was not in accordance with the law.

“The Court of Appeals agreed with PLDT’s contention that the Secretary’s regularization order was ‘tainted with grave abuse of discretion’ because it did not meet the ‘substantial evidence’ standards set out by the Supreme Court in landmark jurisprudence,” the telco said on Monday.

GMA News Online has contacted Bello on this matter, but no response has been received as of this posting.

“The Court also said that the DOLE’s appreciation of evidence leaned in favor of the contractor workers, and that the Secretary had ‘lost sight’ of distinctions involving the labor law concepts of ‘control over means and methods’, and ‘control over results’,” according to PLDT.

The CA also set aside the regularization orders involving janitorial services, messengerial and clerical services, information technology firms, IT services, back office support, business process outsourcing or call centers, sales, as well as medical, dental, engineering and other professional services, the telco said. — with Virgil Lopez/VDS/RSJ, GMA News