484 Phil. 880
CHICO-NAZARIO, J.:
Private respondent Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company is a corporation duly organized and existing under Philippine laws. Individual respondents occupy the following positions, namely: Maurice Greenberg, as president of the Company; Jose Cuisia, Jr. as Chairman of the Board; Maria Haas and Gardon Watson as Regional Coordinating Pensions Officers, Reynaldo C. Centeno as Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuary; and Anthony Sotelo as the Senior Vice-President and Head of the Human Resources Department.The Labor Arbiter, in his decision[4] dated 01 June 2000, found that respondent was not illegally dismissed. The said decision held in part:
Petitioner was employed on October 28, 1997 by private respondent as Assistant Vice President and Head of the Pensions Department and in concurrent capacity as Trust Officer of Philam Savings Bank, a Philam Life subsidiary. She was to be paid P750,000.00 per annum and is entitled to the benefits given by private respondent to its employees.
Working as Assistant Vice President of Pensions Department of Philamlife, petitioner was offered an additional position by respondent Cuisia, which was then resolved and approved by Philam Savings Bank’s Board of Directors, for the position of Head of Trust Banking Division or AVP-Trust Officer on a concurrent capacity and under a separate compensation.
Effective January 1998, however, petitioner’s marketing manager and marketing officer were immediately transferred to Group Insurance Division. Petitioner, thereafter, was never given replacements for the marketing manager and marketing officer, contrary to private respondent Cuisia’s assurance. Thus, petitioner ran the Pensions Department single-handedly with only one administrative assistant as her staff. Petitioner did the field work, the desk work (administrative, legal, finance, marketing), the out of town meetings, the client presentations, aside from her work with the Philam Savings Bank as fund manager, wherein private respondent Cuisia offered to her for a separate compensation, but has still remain [sic] unpaid.
Sometime in November, 1998, petitioner availed of her housing and car benefits and applied for a car loan and housing loan.
On November 18, 1998, however, private respondent through Centeno and Sotelo, offered her P250,000.00 for her to vacate her position by December 1998. Petitioner declined the offer considering that there was no valid reason for her to leave. Private respondents Centeno and Sotelo admonished her that her filing of suit would prompt respondent Cuisia to blacklist her in companies where he holds directorships and advised her that Philamlife is big and can stand the long ordeal of justice system, whereas she may not withstand the phase of the trial. Evidence that this meeting and matter took place was the formal letter of rejection dated November 25, 1998 sent by petitioner and duly received by the offices of respondents Cuisia, Centeno and Sotelo.
Pertinent portion of the November 25, 1998 letter is hereby quoted:[T]his shall summarize the discussion of meeting held at Mr. Centeno’s Office last November 18, 1998.On December 6, 1998, respondent Cuisia met with petitioner and cajoled her to reconsider and accept the offer of settlement. Cuisia even volunteered to help her look for another job. Petitioner declined, and reiterated that the actuations of respondents clearly intended to harass and humiliate her and have caused her and her family extreme emotional stress.
Briefly, an offer of Two Hundred Fifty Thousand [Pesos] (P250,000) has been made as Settlement fee so that Philamlife will not resort to transferring undersigned to another department for reasons only known to management and which undersigned is still not fully aware in writing. In so doing, it has been emphasized that Mr. Centeno and Mr. Sotelo is (sic) sparing undersigned of the hardships that undersigned will undergo in the said other department which is intended to make undersigned inefficient and eventually serve as basis for her termination or as claimed “non-election” by March 1999. Further, it has been requested and categorically stated by Mr. Sotelo that undersigned forgive Maria Haas for whatever she has done…
On December 8, 1998, two days after the aforesaid December 6 meeting, respondents issued her a memorandum instructing her to transfer to the Legal Department effective December 14, 1998 and to make proper turnover and submit the status report not later than December 11, 1998.
By her letter dated December 10, 1998, petitioner protested the sudden unexplained transfer, more so a non-existing position, and stressed that she was hired because of her marketing, finance, and fund management skills, not her legal skills. She also made of record that her department surpassed the target fund level volume set by the company, thus:Undersigned wish to inform you that your directive for the transfer of undersigned to the legal department is being contested on the ground of outright violation of undersigned’s rights.Atty. Angelita S. Gramaje
Undersigned believe that the transfer will not make her efficient in her work. Undersigned was hired primarily because of her marketing, finance, and fund management skills. Her legal skills are secondary and supplementary in nature. Thus, transfer to the legal department, which is primarily legal, is not acceptable for it will only make undersigned less efficient and negates her productivity and contribution to the company.
Let it be on record, that as of today, the Department has surpassed its P15 Million target, which was originally at P12 Million, as set by no less than the president of Philamlife during the budget preparation and as duly reviewed and approved by the head of the corporation planning department, as fully documented. For the records, we are almost hitting the P20 Million fund level volume, and we are just waiting for the confirmed P109 Million placement of Adamson University Retirement Fund.
With the above, by December 14, 1998 undersigned will continue to be the head of the Pensions Department until this new issue and the other issues raised are fully resolved.
AVP-Pensions Department
Also, on December 10, 1998, respondent Centeno declined the car loan benefit of petitioner, thus:This refers to your 9 December 1998 memorandum regarding your request for a car loan. I have earlier discussed your application for a car loan with both Mr. Anthony B. Sotelo, FVP and Corporate HR Director and Mr. Jose L. Cuisia, Jr., President and CEO. Considering your present employment status, which has been the subject of several discussions between you and Messrs. Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. and Anthony B. Sotelo and myself, we deem it prudent to defer action on your loan request until such time that the issue is resolved with definitiveness.On December 16, 1998, petitioner, while on Official Sick Leave, received a message in her pager that the Pensions Department, which was then holding office at the fifth floor of the Philamlife Building at United Nations Avenue was assumed to be headed by Corine Moralda as her successor, and the Pensions Department was to be immediately physically transferred on said date at the Philamlife Gammon Center in Makati City. Though sick and on official sick leave, petitioner went to the office on December 17, 1998 to verify, and upon seeing the Pensions Department totally dark, without any staff and with left over fixtures, petitioner, emotionally shattered, opted to just leave the premises.
On December 18, 1998, respondent Cuisia through a memorandum appointed Ms. Corine Moralda as replacement of petitioner as Head of the Pensions Department effective December 14, 1998. It was only at that time that petitioner learned that as early as August 23, 1998, respondents had advertised in the Manila Bulletin for her replacement.
Also, although, it is the tradition of Philamlife to give, during the Christmas Season, officers and employees a traditional Season’s giveaways, i.e., ham and queso de bola, petitioner then, thru her authorized representatives, asked for her share, but she was not in the list of recipients. Petitioner’s name was not in the Legal Department, not in the Pensions Department, and not in the list of employees of Philamlife when verified with the Personnel Department.
Hence, on December 23, 1998, petitioner filed the instant case for illegal or constructive dismissal against herein private respondents.
After a careful evaluation of the records, this Office finds and so holds that complainant’s “alleged” illegal dismissal seemed never to have taken place at all, constructive or otherwise. Complainant’s insistence in holding onto her former position for which, as earlier assessed by the Company, she did not meet the high standards expected of her, does not deserve support.The NLRC, in its Decision dated 27 November 2000, affirmed in toto the Decision of the Labor Arbiter.
. . .
Complainant’s supposed transfer to the Legal Department cannot be considered to be unbearable, nor inconvenient, nor prejudicial to the employee, as it did not even involve a demotion in rank or diminution of [her] salaries, benefits and other privileges. Complainant held the position of AVP-Pensions. Her supposed transfer to the Legal Department, still with the rank of AVP, and most importantly, with the same salaries and benefits, cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be considered as amounting to a constructive dismissal.
. . .
WHEREFORE, decision is hereby rendered declaring that complainant was not illegally dismissed. In ordering her transfer from the Pensions Department to the Legal Department, the respondent company was just exercising a legitimate management prerogative.[5]
WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing, the assailed decision of public respondent NLRC is hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE. Accordingly, private respondent is hereby ORDERED to pay petitioner separation pay in lieu of reinstatement, her full backwages inclusive of allowances and other benefits or their monetary equivalent. For this purpose, the case is remanded to the Labor Arbiter for further proceedings solely for the purpose of determining and/or computing the monetary liabilities of private respondents.Petitioner assigned the following as errors on the part of the Court of Appeals:
Additionally, considering that private respondents were proven to be in bad faith in the constructive dismissal of petitioner, the former are hereby ordered to pay the latter exemplary damages in the amount of Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000) and moral damages also in the amount of Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000).
In short, the issue to be resolved is: Was respondent constructively dismissed or was her transfer a legitimate exercise of management prerogative?
- THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS GRAVELY ERRED IN RULING THAT THE RESPONDENT’S TRANSFER TO THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT IS TANTAMOUNT TO CONSTRUCTIVE DISMISSAL FOR THE SAME IS A LEGITIMATE EXERCISE OF MANAGEMENT PREROGATIVE;
- THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS GRAVELY ERRED IN RULING THAT THE RESPONDENT’S TRANSFER TO THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT IS TANTAMOUNT TO CONSTRUCTIVE DISMISSAL CONSIDERING THAT IT WAS THE RESPONDENT WHO SEVERED HER WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE COMPANY; AND
- THERE BEING NO ILLEGAL DISMISSAL TO SPEAK OF, THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS GRAVELY ERRED IN ORDERING THE PETITIONER TO PAY RESPONDENT SEPARATION PAY, BACKWAGES, EXEMPLARY DAMAGES AND MORAL DAMAGES.[6]
But, like other rights, there are limits thereto. The managerial prerogative to transfer personnel must be exercised without grave abuse of discretion, bearing in mind the basic elements of justice and fair play. Having the right should not be confused with the manner in which that right is exercised. Thus, it cannot be used as a subterfuge by the employer to rid himself of an undesirable worker. In particular, the employer must be able to show that the transfer is not unreasonable, inconvenient or prejudicial to the employee; nor does it involve a demotion in rank or a diminution of his salaries, privileges and other benefits. Should the employer fail to overcome this burden of proof, the employee’s transfer shall be tantamount to constructive dismissal, which has been defined as a quitting because continued employment is rendered impossible, unreasonable or unlikely; as an offer involving a demotion in rank and diminution in pay. Likewise, constructive dismissal exists when an act of clear discrimination, insensibility or disdain by an employer has become so unbearable to the employee leaving him with no option but to forego with his continued employment.The NLRC, in its decision[27] dated 27 November 2000, found that respondent herein was hired by petitioner to head the Strategic Business Unit (SBU), and that she was specifically engaged as such because of her representation that she was knowledgeable and experienced in the trust business.[28] The records reveal otherwise. Herein respondent was not hired to handle the so-called SBU. She was hired as Assistant Vice-President in charge of Pensions Department.[29] This fact is further inveterated by the announcement of Cuisia in his Memorandum dated 08 December 1997,[30] that, indeed, respondent herein was appointed as such.
It is rather peculiar that the alleged ineptness of respondent did not prompt petitioner to issue any Inter-office Memorandum reprimanding, admonishing, or warning the former about her performance. The solemnity of respondent’s alleged non-performance was so immense, considering that the Pensions Department is a profit center, which was so imperative to the existence of petitioner in terms of raising revenue. The officers of petitioner should have been very much troubled about this.
- Failure to prepare and submit a budget plan;
- Failure to prepare and submit a Pension Production Report on time;
- Strained relations with clients;
- Failure to prepare an Operations Manual for the Department;
- Inability to develop and maintain a good working relationship with her colleagues;
- Inability to communicate her ideas; and
- Others.[33]
. . . We recall that what triggered petitioner’s transfer was her alleged inefficiency and ineptness in her work in the Pensions Department. Records, however, reveal otherwise. Petitioner produced a fund level of 1000% over the previous year (her predecessor’s year of 1997 with a fund level of about P2 Million generated for two years or an average of P1 Million per year then) in the amount of P19,248,320.31 as a result of a meager 3 months marketing efforts, although private respondents instructed her to stop marketing sometime in April 1998 for no apparent reason. All these were never rebutted nor disproved by private respondents. They merely alleged her inefficiency without concrete and sufficient proof. But allegation is different from proof. Hence, we cannot countenance their allegations.[34] (emphasis ours)Petitioner maintains that it was respondent who severed her working relationship with it.[35] Per letter, dated 11 January 1999, issued by petitioner’s Legal Department, respondent was asked to report immediately to her new assignment and submit to a medical examination, and that the latter took no heed of this.[36] It seems that the point impliedly being raised by petitioner is that respondent disengaged her employment relationship with petitioner by abandoning her work and failing to report accordingly. This argument is apocryphal. Respondent, on 23 December 1998, already filed a case for illegal dismissal against petitioner.[37] For petitioner to anticipate respondent to report for work after the latter already filed a case for illegal dismissal before the NLRC, would be absurd. We have already laid down the rule that for abandonment to exist, it is essential (1) that the employee must have failed to report for work or must have been absent without valid or justifiable reason; and (2) that there must have been a clear intention to sever the employer-employee relationship manifested by some overt acts.[38] Both these requisites are not present here. There was no abandonment as the latter is not compatible with constructive dismissal.[39]
. . . Social justice is “neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy,” but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures calculated to insure economic stability of all the competent elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus populi est suprema lex.WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing, the Petition is hereby DENIED, and the assailed Decision dated 18 October 2002 and Resolution dated 20 January 2003 of the Court of Appeals, are hereby AFFIRMED. Costs against petitioner.
Social justice, therefore, must be founded on the recognition of the necessity of interdependence among divers and diverse units of a society and of the protection that should be equally and evenly extended to all groups as a combined force in our social and economic life, consistent with the fundamental and paramount objective of the state of promoting the health, comfort, and quiet of all persons, and of bringing about the greatest good to the greatest number.