CA affirms NLRC ruling on illegal dismissal case in favor of GMA Network | GMANetwork.com - Corporate - Articles

The Third Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) denied for lack of merit the petition filed by 31 former GMA Network, Inc. (GMA) workers and affirmed the NLRC’s decision which junked the petitioners’ illegal dismissal complaint against GMA.

CA affirms NLRC ruling on illegal dismissal case in favor of GMA Network

March 27 2017

The Third Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) denied for lack of merit the petition filed by 31 former GMA Network, Inc. (GMA) workers and affirmed the NLRC’s decision which junked the petitioners’ illegal dismissal complaint against GMA.

In the decision penned by Associate Justice Rosmari D. Carandang dated March 3, 2017, the CA sustained the NLRC’s ruling dated March 28, 2014, stating that the petitioners were not regular employees of GMA and there was “no illegal dismissal to speak of.”

The petition stemmed from the complaint filed against GMA by 33 workers for regularization, which was later on converted to an illegal dismissal case. Two of the complainants entered into a compromise agreement with GMA while the case proceeded with respect to the remaining 31 complainants.

The petitioners claimed that their employment with GMA had already passed the “four-fold test” on employer-employee relations and, therefore, they should be considered regular employees of the Network. As such, they said that “they can only be dismissed for just and/or authorized causes as laid down in the Labor Code of the Philippines.”

However, the CA agreed with the NLRC’s ruling which favored GMA. The CA said that “the NLRC correctly ruled that although an employer-employee relationship exist between GMA and petitioners, the latter cannot be considered regular employees of the company as there was proof that they worked as relievers for aggregate periods of less than a year.” 

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