511 Phil. 268
CALLEJO, SR., J.:
WHEREFORE, JUDGMENT is hereby rendered finding the dismissal of complainants as illegal.Tomas, Jr. and Ayco appealed the decision to the NLRC. On December 19, 2000, the NLRC reversed the decision of the Labor Arbiter, holding that Mejorada was hired by the bus conductor, not by Tomas, Jr., hence, was not an employee of the latter. The NLRC ruled that the complainants failed to prove that they were dismissed from employment; Tomas, Jr. and Ayco, likewise, failed to prove that the complainants abandoned their jobs. The fallo of the decision reads:
Respondents BARON EXPRESS AND/OR BENJAMIN TOMAS, JR., Owner/PETER ANTHONY AYCO, Manager, are hereby ordered to, jointly and [solidarily], pay complainants the total amount of PESOS: TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY-SIX THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE PESOS AND 32/100 (P286,021.32) representing separation pay and backwages.
All other claims are dismissed for lack of basis.
SO ORDERED.[4]
WHEREFORE, the judgment appealed from is VACATED and SET ASIDE. A new one is entered declaring that complainants Roberto Umanito, Ruel and Sabino Casialdo were not illegally dismissed nor deemed to have abandoned their jobs. The remedy in such a case is to maintain the employment status quo. They are thus ordered to report back to work immediately and for respondents to readmit them to their former jobs without backwages.The dismissed employees filed a petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals (CA). On July 19, 2002, the appellate court rendered judgment granting the petition: it nullified the resolution of the NLRC and reinstated the decision of the Labor Arbiter. The CA ruled that Mejorada was an employee of Tomas, Jr., and that the employees were dismissed without any lawful or valid cause, without having been accorded due process.[6]
Absent any employer-employee relationship between complainant Renante Mejorada and respondents, there cannot be a case of unjust dismissal and, therefore, complainant is not entitled to neither backwages nor separation pay.
SO ORDERED.[5]
THE COURT OF APPEALS COMMITTED AN ERROR OF LAW WHEN IT GRANTED THE RESPONDENTS' PETITION FOR CERTIORARI, NULLIFIED THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION AND REINSTATED THE DECISION OF THE LABOR ARBITER.The petition is denied due course.
THE COURT OF APPEALS COMMITTED AN ERROR OF LAW WHEN IT DEEMED ADOPTED THE CONCLUSION OF THE LABOR ARBITER THAT RESPONDENTS WERE ILLEGALLY DISMISSED BY THE PETITIONERS.[7]
But private respondents vehemently insist that petitioners failed to adduce evidence to prove that petitioner Renante Mejorada was, indeed, employed with Baron Express; or that respondent corporation did not pay wages to Mejorada; or that Mejorada's non-inclusion in the company payroll is necessarily fatal to his alleged cause of action against private respondents.The ruling of the CA is correct. Indeed, the petitioners failed to submit any evidence to prove their claim that Mejorada was not an employee, and even failed to identify the conductor who allegedly employed him. The least they could have done was to present an affidavit executed by such conductor to prove that such person was the one who engaged Mejorada's services. No such affidavit was adduced in evidence.
We are not persuaded. No particular form of evidence is required to prove the existence of an employer-employee relationship. Any competent and relevant evidence to prove the relationship may be admitted. For, if only documentary evidence would be required to show that relationship, no scheming employer would ever be brought before the bar of justice, as no employer would wish to come out with any trace of the illegality he has authored considering that it should take much weightier proof to invalidate a written instrument. We reiterate here the well-settled doctrine that the existence of employer-employee relationship is ultimately a question of fact. The case under consideration is an exception to the general rule that findings of fact of the NLRC are to be accorded respect and finality on appeal. For, even the Supreme Court itself will not uphold erroneous conclusions of the NLRC reversing factually and juridically correct decisions of the labor arbiters; or where the NLRC's findings of facts, upon which its conclusions are based, are not supported by substantial evidence. In the present case, we see no reason to reject, or set aside, the factual determinations of Labor Arbiter Miriam Libron-Barroso. In contrast to the conclusions of the respondent NLRC and the arguments advanced by private respondents, the findings of Labor Arbiter Libron-Barroso on the question of the existence of employer-employee relationship were predicated on credible, competent, and substantial evidence, or that amount of relevant evidence which a reasonable man might accept as adequate to justify a conclusion.
To be sure, it has not escaped our notice that private respondents never refuted petitioners' assertion that petitioner Renante Mejorada was issued respondent corporation's company uniform. Also, as pointed out by Labor Arbiter Libron-Barroso in her August 25, 2000 decision, private respondents did not care to identify or name the bus conductor who allegedly hired petitioner Renante Mejorada. In other words, private respondents have failed to convince us that, indeed, Mejorada was not an employee of Baron Express.
All told, we are satisfied that the decision of Labor Arbiter Libron-Barroso is a sound, fair and just judgment of the controversy at hand.[8]
To start with, private respondents cannot deny the fact that petitioners filed a complaint for illegal dismissal against them on April 24, 2000. This alone negates any intention on the part of petitioners-employees to abandon their jobs. The Supreme Court has ruled that the filing of a complaint for illegal dismissal is inconsistent with the charge of abandonment, for an employee who takes steps to protest his dismissal cannot, by any stretch of logic, be said to have abandoned his work.The foregoing findings of the CA affirmed the Labor Arbiter's findings:
What is more, respondent employer did not afford petitioners due process. An employee may only be dismissed for just or authorized causes, and the legality of the dismissal of an employee hinges on: (a) the legality of the act of dismissal, that is, the dismissal must be erected on the grounds set forth by Art. 282 of the Labor Code; and (b) the legality in the very manner of dismissal itself. Here, private respondent employer utterly failed to justify petitioners' discharge on the basis of abandonment of work. To be stressed, too, is the postulate that abandonment of work does not per se sever the employer-employee relationship. It is merely a specie of neglect or failure of duty, which may eventually graduate into a just cause for termination of employment. But the operative act that will ultimately put an end to this relationship is the dismissal of the employee after complying with the procedure prescribed by law. If the employer does not observe this procedure, there is illegal dismissal.
It is horn-book law that the termination of an employee must be effected in accordance with law. Amongst others, the law requires the employer to furnish the worker or employee sought to be dismissed with two written notices, i.e., (a) a notice which apprises the employee of the particular acts or omissions for which his dismissal is sought; and (b) a subsequent notice which advises the employee of the employer's decision to dismiss him. Upon this score, Rule XIV, Sec. 2, of the Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code stipulates:"Any employer who seeks to dismiss a worker shall furnish him a written notice stating the particular acts or omission constituting the grounds for his dismissal. In case of abandonment of work, the notice shall be served at the worker's last known address."Beyond dispute or cavil here is the fact that no written notice was sent by the respondent employer Benjamin Tomas, Jr. informing petitioners that they had been terminated due to abandonment of work. This failure on the part of private respondent Tomas to comply with the twin-notice requirement, indeed, placed the legality of the dismissal in question under heavy clouds, rendering the dismissal illegal. By the same token, we regard as unavailing the said private respondent's plea before the NLRC that "as proof that petitioners were not dismissed, they could report back to work anytime." And by extension, we deem equally untenable this private respondent's posture that he could not have dismissed petitioners-drivers through his co-private respondent Ayco, because the latter was only a supervisor of Baron Express, and was not thus authorized to hire and dismiss employees. Petitioners gave short shrift to these arguments in their January 29, 2001 motion for reconsideration, to wit:"It is well-settled in our jurisprudence that the burden in proving that the dismissal of a worker is legal lies with the employer. A manifestation 'that complainant could return to his work' made on appeal only is not a proof that complainant was not dismissed at all! If it were true that respondents are in good faith and have never dismissed complainant, they could have done so before this complaint was filed.By Article 1702 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, in case of doubt, all labor legislation and all labor contracts shall be construed in favor of the safety and decent living for the laborer. It is a cardinal teaching of jurisprudence that if doubts exist between the evidence presented by the employer and that adduced by the employee, or in the interpretation of agreements between these two, the scales of justice must be tilted in favor of the latter. The policy of the law is to spread out maximum benefits under the labor laws to the greatest number of laborers, workers and employees who represent some of the most disadvantaged and marginalized segments of society. This rule finds peculiar application to the case at bench, in light of the fact that the evidence presented by private respondent corporation relative to petitioners' dismissal is far from convincing. Accordingly, we uphold the labor arbiter's finding that petitioners-drivers had been illegally dismissed.[9]
"And it is very ridiculous to consider and argue that an ordinary worker like Mr. Peter Anthony Ayco could very well usurp the function and authority of Mr. Tomas, Jr., the owner of the company, without being noticed, therefore, by the latter, who 'personally and directly' managed his transportation business."
Nowhere in the records can you find any letter or memorandum sent to complainants in compliance with the above-provision even when they have ample time to do so especially in the case of the Casialdo's. We cannot fault the latter that it took them a year to file said case. Complainants Ruel and Sabino Casialdo have only to suffer in silence since respondent B. Tomas, Jr.'s father-in-law Congressman Prospero Amatong, is a longtime politician in their area or in local parlance, "malakas." Although their fear is unfounded as far as this Office is concerned but for these lowly workers it meant a general deal. Nonetheless, they filed their complaint within the prescriptive period. Moreover, respondents should not fault Sabino Casialdo with driving a PUJ jeep after his "alleged" abandonment since he has for himself his family to [feed].The findings and the rulings of the Labor Arbiter and the CA are correct.
As regard the case of Roberto F. Umanito, he was aggrieved of what respondent Peter Ayco did to him. His summary dismissal was without just cause and the benefit of due process. We gave more credence to complainant's contention that his immediate dismissal was in retaliation of his report regarding the anomalies committed by Ayco's brother who was the conductor of the bus he was driving. The affidavits executed by respondents' employees cannot be given weight as they are merely self-serving. The best evidence is respondents' letter to complainant notifying him in writing stating the reason therefor to his last known address as required by law in such cases. The record is wanting of this proof. Thus, the overall picture clearly shows that complainants R. Umanito, Ruel and Sabino Casialdo were illegally dismissed without just or authorized cause and due process.[10]