Five Guiding Principles to Know the Nature of Your Employment (Carpio vs. Modair Manila Co. Ltd. Inc., G.R. No. 239622, June 21, 2021)

In the present case, the Supreme Court laid down these five guiding principles to determine the nature of employment of workers in the construction industry:

First, a worker is presumed a regular employee, unless the employer establishes that (1) the employee was hired under a contract specifying that the employment will last only for a specific undertaking, the termination of which is determined at the time of engagement; (2) there was indeed a project undertaken; and (3) the parties bargained on equal terms, with no vices of consent.

Second, if considered a regular employee at the outset, security of tenure already attaches, and the subsequent execution of project employment contracts cannot undermine such security, but will simply be considered a continuation in the regular engagement of such employee.

Third, even if initially engaged as a project employee, such nature of employment may ripen into regular status if (1) there is a continuous rehiring of project employees even after cessation of a project; and (2) the tasks performed by the alleged “project employee” are vital, necessary and indispensable to the usual business or trade of the employer. Conversely, project-based employment will not ripen into regularity if the construction worker was truly engaged as a project-based employee, and between each successive project, the employer made no manifestations of any intent to treat the worker as a continuing resource for the main business.

Fourth, regularized construction workers are subject to the “no work, no pay” principle, such that the employer is not obligated to pay them a salary when “on leave.” In case of an oversupply of regularized construction workers, then the employer can exercise management prerogative to decide whom to engage for the limited projects and whom to consider as still “on leave.”

Fifth, submission of termination reports to the DOLE Field Office “may be considered” only as an indicator of project employment; conversely, non-submission does not automatically grant regular status. By themselves, such circumstances do not determine the nature of employment.

The Supreme Court decides: Illegally dismissed probationary employees, like regular employees, are entitled to backwages up to their actual reinstatement or up to the finality of the Decision

In the case of C.P. Reyes Hospital et al., vs. Barbosa, G.R. No. 228357, April 16, 2024,  the Supreme Court held that illegally dismissed probationary employees, like regular employees, are entitled to backwages up to their actual reinstatement. 

In case reinstatement is proven, to be infeasible due to strained relations between the employer and the employee and other analogous causes, backwages shall be computed from the time compensation was withheld up to the finality of the Decision.

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