Unmarried teachers can’t be suspended for being pregnant —SC

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday reiterated that premarital sexual relations resulting in pregnancy out of wedlock cannot be considered disgraceful or immoral, and therefore does not justify suspending an employee. 

In an 18-page decision, the SC First Division ruled that the decision of a Christian school in Bohol in 2016 to suspend its grade school teacher for getting pregnant outside marriage was illegal.

The teacher taught language, physical education, arts, mother tongue, and writing at the Christian school.

In September 2016, when she was two months pregnant, she approached the grade school principal and administrative team head to inform them of her pregnancy. 

She was later on “verbally suspended” by administrative team head who told her not to report to class until she could present documents proving that she already married her boyfriend, the father of the child she was carrying. The teacher also received a written notice stating that she was suspended indefinitely without pay due to immorality until she gets married. 

The teacher filed a complaint for illegal suspension. The Labor Arbiter held that she was constructively dismissed, but the National Labor Relations Commission reversed this decision.

The Court of Appeals, meanwhile, ruled that there was no constructive dismissal, but found the teacher’s suspension illegal.

In its decision, the SC affirmed the CA’s finding of illegal suspension of the teacher. It held that sexual intercourse between two consenting adults who have no legal impediment to marry is not immoral. 

“No law proscribes such, and said conduct does not contravene any fundamental state policy enshrined in the Constitution,” the decision read. 

The High Court also pointed out that under the law, the standard of morality applicable to all is public and secular, not religious.

As the teacher’s pregnancy cannot be considered immoral, the SC ruled that it was not a valid ground for her suspension.

The SC ordered the school to pay the teacher back wages and benefits due her during the period she was suspended.—Giselle Ombay/AOL, GMA Integrated News