Security guard in broken shift scheme entitled to overtime pay — SC

Security guards working under a broken period scheme must receive overtime pay if their break is too short for personal use, the Supreme Court (SC) said Friday.

In a 12-page decision, the SC Third Division ordered a security agency to compensate two security guards for the four hour breaks they were required to work.

“Time and again, the rule is that ‘any doubt arising from the evaluation of evidence as between the employer and the employee must be resolve in favor of the latter’,” the SC said.

“Had [the security agency] truly intended that the petitioners should work only eight hours a day, then it would not have resorted to such an iniquitous scheme,” it added.

According to the Court, the security guards were hired by a security agency and assigned in a residence in Davao City. There, they worked 12-hour shifts with a four-hour break in between.

The SC said when the security guards asked for a salary increase, the security agency ignored their request and reassigned them. This led them to file a labor complaint for constructive dismissal and unpaid overtime pay.

The Labor Arbiter and the National Labor Relations Commission ruled that the guards were entitled to overtime pay, but that they were not wrongfully dismissed.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals reversed the decisions, saying the daily time records submitted by the guards that proved they worked a 12-hour shift were not signed by the security agency.

For its part, the SC found that the security guards were able to show that they worked for more than eight hours.

It cited the Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code, which states that breaks count as work hours if they are too short for personal use.

The SC said the four-hour breaks counted as work hours as the guards could not use the time for themselves. It noted that the security agency admitted that the guards stayed on site between shifts.

“It was impractical and costly for minimum wage security guards to leave work, go home, and then come back on the same day,” the SC said.

The decision was promulgated in October 2024 and made public in February 2025. — BAP, GMA Integrated News