Court sides with PLDT; Malacañang ‘saddened’
Telecommunications firm PLDT Inc. has won a reprieve in its battle against the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) over the regularization of contractual workers.
The telco, in a disclosure on Monday, said it had received a copy of a July 31, 2018 Court of Appeals (CA) decision modifying Labor department orders to provide direct employment to 7,344 workers from 38 third party contractors.
The news did little to support PLDT’s share price, which fell by 1.81 percent or P25 to P1,355 apiece amid a 0.03-percent dip for the broader stock market.
Malacañang expressed disappointment over the court ruling, with Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. saying that the Duterte administration remained committed to end contractualization.
“Ang desisyon po ng DOLE ay desisyon ng Executive. So siyempre po nalulungkot kami na binaligtad ng CA ang decision (The decision of DOLE is also the decision of the Executive. We are saddened by the CA reversal of its decision),” Roque told reporters in Davao.
“Pero umaasa pa rin kami na pag umabot ito sa Supreme Court eh mananaig pa rin ‘yung naunang decision ng DOLE na desisyon ng ehekutibo (But we are still hopeful that when this reaches the Supreme Court, the DOLE’s decision, which is also the decision of the executive, will prevail),” he added.
Rulings modified
The appellate court ruling, penned by Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon, affirmed the DOLE regularization orders only with respect to workers performing jobs necessary to PLDT’s businesses, specifically the installation, repair and maintenance of communications lines.
The court rejected the DOLE’s contention that PLDT had engaged in labor-only contracting, which is illegal, with regard to the following functions:
• janitorial services, messengerial and clerical services;
• information technology (IT) firms and services;
• IT support services, both hardware and software; and applications development;
• back office support and office operations;
• business process outsourcing or call centers;
• sales; and
• medical, dental engineering and other professional services.
It noted, among others, that the Labor department had overlooked a directive providing for exemptions and said it was siding with PLDT with regard to the latter’s claims that the regularization orders were “tainted with grave abuse of discretion”.
The court enjoined the DOLE from implementing regularization with regard to the alleged labor-only contracting functions, and remanded the matter of direct employment for line installation, repair and maintenance workers.
The Labor department’s National Capital Region office was also ordered to review the actual monetary awards due, which — based on the original orders — amounted to P51.8 million.
“PLDT and its legal counsel are studying the Court of Appeals decision to determine the company’s appropriate next steps,” the telco said in the disclosure.
The DOLE Regional office issued a compliance order against the telco in July 2017, which Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd affirmed in resolutions issued in January and April this year. The telco filed its appeal with the CA in May.
Workers’ groups have vowed to stage mass demonstrations against PLDT and the appellate court. They also plan to escalate their complaints to lawmakers at a Senate hearing on August 9.
Ending ‘endo’
In May, President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order (EO) reiterating a prohibition against illegal contracting and subcontracting but labor groups were not satisfied.
Last month, Duterte urged Congress to pass a law against contractualization, admitting that the EO was not enough to address all worker concerns.
The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that protects the security of tenure of workers and prohibits sub-contracting. It does not ban contractual labor, which employers say is needed during peak production season.
Putting an end to “endo” was among Duterte’s campaign promises. “Endo”, from “end of contract”, initially referred to the practice of short-term contracts short of the six months that would make a worker a regular employee with benefits.
With Reports from CATHERINE S. VALENTE
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