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AT A GLANCE:
The fact that an employee was deprived of office space, was not given further work assignment and was not paid her salaries until she was left with no choice but stop reporting for work all combine to make out a clear case of constructive dismissal. (Tan Brothers vs. Escudero, G.R. No. 188711, July 8, 2013)
In the case of Tan Brothers vs. Escudero, the Supreme Court examined the circumstances surrounding the resignation of an employee. The employee, deprived of office space, deprived of further work assignments, and denied salary payments, found herself in an impossible situation. Unable to carry out her duties effectively and facing financial hardship due to unpaid wages, she had no recourse but to cease reporting for work. Thus, it was not abandonment of work but rather a case of constructive dismissal.
Facts of the case:
In July 1991, Edna R. Escudero (Escudero) was hired as bookkeeper by petitioner Tan Brothers Corporation of Basilan City (Tan Brothers), a corporation primarily engaged in the real estate business. On 1 September 2004, Escudero filed against Tan Brothers a complaint for illegal dismissal, underpayment of wages, cost of living allowance and 13th month pay.
In support of the complaint, Escudero alleged in her position paper that, starting July 2003, her monthly salary of ₱2,500.00 was not paid on time by Tan Brothers. After having the corporation’s office remodeled in the early part of 2004, Tan Brothers allegedly rented out the office space Escudero used to occupy and ceased giving her further assignments. Eventually constrained to stop reporting for work because of her dire financial condition, Escudero claimed that Tan Brothers “shrewdly maneuvered” her illegal dismissal from employment.
In its position paper, on the other hand, Tan Brothers averred that Escudero was paid a daily wage of ₱155.00, and she abandoned her employment when she stopped reporting for work in July 2003. Aside from taking with her most of the corporation’s payrolls, vouchers and other material documents evidencing due payment of wages and labor standard benefits, Tan Brothers maintained that, without its knowledge and consent, Escudero appropriated for herself an Olivetti typewriter worth ₱15,000.00.
In support of its claim of due payment of its employees’ wages and benefits, Tan Brothers submitted copies of its remaining vouchers and payrolls from 24 December 1997 to 31 July 2000 which were prepared by Escudero and the result of the inspection conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Regional Office No. 9 that cleared it of violations of labor standard laws.
Ruling of the Labor Arbiter
On 24 November 2004, Labor Arbiter Joselito B. De Leon rendered a decision, finding Tan Brothers guilty of constructively dismissing Escudero from employment. Rejecting Tan Brothers’ claim that Escudero resigned from and/or abandoned her employment, the Labor Arbiter ruled that the former circumvented the substantive and procedural requirements of due process when it withheld the latter’s salaries and stopped utilizing her services despite her presence at work.
While giving credence to the pieces of documentary evidence adduced by Tan Brothers to prove due payment of wages and labor standard benefits to its employees, the Labor Arbiter ruled that, as a consequence of her constructive dismissal, Escudero was entitled to separation pay, and backwages.
Issue:
Tan Brothers essentially argues that Escudero abandoned her employment and that the same was not negated by the filing of her complaint for illegal dismissal more than one year after she stopped reporting for work.
Ruling:
As defined under established jurisprudence, abandonment is the deliberate and unjustified refusal of an employee to resume his employment. It constitutes neglect of duty and is a just cause for termination of employment under paragraph (b) of Article 282 of the Labor Code.
To constitute abandonment, however, there must be a clear and deliberate intent to discontinue one’s employment without any intention of returning. In this regard, two elements must concur: (1) failure to report for work or absence without valid or justifiable reason, and (2) a clear intention to sever the employer-employee relationship, with the second element as the more determinative factor and being manifested by some overt acts.
Otherwise stated, absence must be accompanied by overt acts unerringly pointing to the fact that the employee simply does not want to work anymore. It has been ruled that the employer has the burden of proof to show a deliberate and unjustified refusal of the employee to resume his employment without any intention of returning.
It is, doctrinal that abandonment is a matter of intention and cannot, for said reason, be lightly inferred, much less legally presumed from certain equivocal acts. Viewed in the light of Escudero’s persistence in reporting for work despite the irregular payment of her salaries starting July 2003, we find that her subsequent failure to do so as a consequence of Tan Brothers’ non-payment of her salaries in May 2004 is hardly evincive of an intention to abandon her employment. Indeed, mere absence or failure to report for work, even after a notice to return work has been served, is not enough to amount to an abandonment of employment.
Further, Escudero was constructively dismissed by Tan Brothers which, as employer, had the burden of proving that said employee was dismissed for a just and valid cause. Constructive dismissal occurs when there is cessation of work because continued employment is rendered impossible, unreasonable, or unlikely as when there is a demotion in rank or diminution in pay or when a clear discrimination, insensibility, or disdain by an employer becomes unbearable to the employee leaving the latter with no other option but to quit.
The test is whether a reasonable person in the employee’s position would have felt compelled to give up his position under the circumstances. Much though Tan Brothers may now be inclined to disparage the same as mere alibis, the fact that Escudero was deprived of office space, was not given further work assignment and was not paid her salaries until she was left with no choice but stop reporting for work all combine to make out a clear case of constructive dismissal.
Related Article/s:
What is the test for Constructive Dismissal?
“Action Speaks Louder than Voice”: Acts of Employer Constituting Dismissal
Involuntary Resignation – A Form of Constructive Dismissal
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