Dismissed engineer wins case against company in MEPZ

CEBU, Philippines - The East Asia Utilities Corporation in Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) I lost its case filed by a dismissed mechanical engineer at the Court of Appeals.

CA Special Former 18th Division in Cebu City denied the motion for reconsideration filed by the company while the partial motion for reconsideration filed by petitioner, Engr. Joselito Arenas, was granted.

In a Resolution dated February 7, 2014 signed by Associate Justices Gabriel Ingles, Carmelita Salandanan Manahal and Marilyn Lagura-Yap, they said the private respondents have not given cogent reason for the court to reverse its earlier decision.

“We have examined the allegations and arguments advanced by private respondents in their motion for reconsideration and found that the said motion advances no new argument of consequence or substance that has not been addressed and resolved in our Decision of July 25, 2013,” read the Resolution.

Following the decision, the Court remanded the case to the labor arbiter for computation of the separation pay, backwages, and other monetary awards due the petitioner.

 â€œWe clarify that in accordance with the applicable law and jurisprudence, his backwages will be computed based on his salary rate at the time of his dismissal plus the regular allowances that he had been receiving likewise at the time of his dismissal as well his other benefits of their monetary equivalent,” read the resolution.

The CA had earlier overturned a National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) decision dismissing Arenas and ordered the company to pay him his separation pay equivalent to his one month salary for every year of service instead of being reinstatement due to strained relationship of parties.

Arenas filed the motion for clarificatory order following the decision. He used to work as shift engineer of the said company from April 4, 1994 until his dismissal on September 2, 2010.

The company dismissed Arenas for alleged commission of fraud or willful breach of trust for the late reporting of a thief caught cutting a scrapped retainer ring on August 3, 2010.

It also suspended him for 15 days while the infraction was being investigated by the company’s Employee Behavior Action Review Panel, which recommended his dismissal.

This prompted Arenas to file a case for illegal dismissal and non-payment of salaries, 13th month pay and allowances, and retirement benefits before the Regional Arbitration Branch (RAB) No. VII. He also requested either reinstatement or the payment of separation pay, moral damages, exemplary damages, and attorney’s fees.

On December 15, 2010, Labor Arbiter Jose Gutierrez ordered Arenas’ reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and other privileges and for the company to pay him P336,128. 

Arenas, though, was penalized with a one-month suspension.

Both he and the company appealed the RAB decision. Arenas argued that Gutierrez committed an error in favoring his suspension, failed to appreciate the evidence showing that his dismissal was tainted with malice and bad faith, and that his other claims were not awarded.

The company, on the other hand, said the arbitrator did not consider that the primary ground for dismissal was loss of trust and confidence.

On May 31, 2011, the NLRC overturned the RAB decision, declared the validity of the dismissal from service, and set that there is no more basis for the grant of reinstatement or separation pay and Arenas’ other claims. This prompted Arenas to elevate the matter to the CA.

The company also has a pending administrative case for unprofessional and or dishonorable conduct filed by Arenas before the Professional Regulation Commission for not hiring a professional mechanical engineer in its operations which is in violation of the Philippine Mechanical Engineering Act.  (FREEMAN)