Illegally dismissed probationary employees entitled to backwages -SC

The backwages of illegally dismissed probationary employees include wages when compensation was withheld up to reinstatement, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled.

According to the SC PIO, the SC En Banc dismissed the petition filed by a hospital and ruled that the hospital’s termination of probationary employee Geraldine Barbosa was invalid.

The court said Barbosa entered into a six-month probationary contract with the hospital in September 2013, but her probationary employment was terminated in December 2013 due to alleged negative performance.

Barbosa then filed a complaint for illegal dismissal against the hospital.

The Labor Arbiter said that Barbosa was illegally dismissed, a ruling that was reversed by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

The Court of Appeals then reversed the ruling of the NLRC and reinstated the Labor Arbiter’s ruling in favor of Barbosa.

The SC then affirmed the appellate court’s ruling, saying that Barbosa was illegally dismissed and was entitled to backwages.

It clarified that while probationary employment may be terminated should an employee fail to qualify, it found that Barbosa’s dismissal was baseless since she obtained the passing grades needed to meet the standards for regularization.

“The Court found [the hospital’s] claims of unsatisfactory performance ungenuine as they were only issued two weeks after Barbosa had already been terminated and without an accompanying performance evaluation,” the SC PIO said.

The court said that illegally dismissed probationary employees are entitled to backwages up to their actual reinstatement and not only until the end of the probationary period.

“In case reinstatement is not feasible, backwages shall be computed from the time compensation was withheld up to the finality of the Decision in the illegal dismissal case,” it said. — DVM, GMA Integrated News