PLDT Inc. will still be required to absorb some of its contractual workers despite the decision of the Court of Appeal (CA) “modifying” the regularization order of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the telecommunication giant.
Last week, CA promulgated a 47-page ruling, which “affirmed, but with modification” the decision of DOLE ordering PLDT to regularize 7,344 workers last April.
CA sided with DOLE in the aspect of regularizing PLDT’s contractual workers engaged in the installation, repair and maintenance of its communication lines.
However, the appellate court “set aside” the following contractual workers from being covered by the DOLE regularization order: janitorial services, messengerial and clerical services; information technology (IT) firms and services; IT support services, both hardware and software; and application development.
Also exempted from the order are back office support and office operations; business process outsourcing or call centers; sales; and medical, dental, engineering, and other professional services.
CA cited previous jurisprudence, provisions of the Labor Code, as well the DOLE’s previous order on contractualization, to justify the exemption of the aforementioned workers from regularization in PLDT.
Labor Undersecretary Joel B. Maglunsod told Business Mirror they have yet to receive an official copy of the CA decision, but he said they are ready to file a motion for reconsideration on their case.
When informed about the “modified” regularization order, DOLE said it will still determine how many of the 7,344 contractual workers of PLDT will be exempted from its order.
As for those contractual workers who will be regularized under the CA decision, Maglunsod said they will ask PLDT to award the necessary monetary compensation to these workers.
“Our legal action regarding garnishment for workers with order for regularization will still continue,” Maglunsod said.
He said they will no longer pursue the contempt charges they had planned to file against PLDT for supposedly refusing to comply with their regularization order.
CA ordered the office of DOLE Region Nation Capital Region to determine who the workers to be absorbed (installation, repair and maintenance of its communication lines), their contractors, and the amount that will be paid to them.
PLDT said DOLE’s regularization order demanded they award P51.8 million monetary claims to the workers to be regularized.
PLDT disclosed its legal counsel are now reviewing the CA ruling to “determine the appropriate next step.”
It issued the statement after receiving a copy of the CA decision on Monday (August 6) and making the necessary disclosure at the Philippine Stocks Exchange.
PLDT filed the petition together with an urgent application for issuance of temporary restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction after DOLE allegedly abused its discretion on its regularization order.
In its decision, CA temporarily stopped the execution of the DOLE order until DOLE-NCR completes the necessary determination consistent with its decision.
It also noted the DOLE decision was indeed “tainted with fatal defects” as claimed by PLDT.
These defects, as CA pointed out, include DOLE’s failure to allow PLDT to present its case; get “substantial evidence” to support its regularization order; and the failure of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III to make an “independent consideration of the law” in his decision.
The PLDT Organization of Workers and Rights (POWER) slammed the CA for its decision for going against the policy of the administration against illegal contractualization.
POWER President Dan Joshua Nazario said they will mount protests to compel CA to affirm the DOLE decision in its entirety.
“We will not allow such a decision to happen as this will set a dangerous precedent to other regularization compliance orders of DOLE and to the general demands of Filipino workers to end contractualization,” Nazario said in a statement.
He said they will also seek the assistance of lawmakers and President Rodrigo R. Duterte to pressure PLDT to regularize all its contractual workers.