Redundancy dismissal
Dear Atty. Kathy,
I was hired by School X in 2018 as a probationary full-time teacher. We executed several yearlong contracts to cover each school year until 2021. Suddenly, I was not given any teaching load for the first semester of 2021, and we did not execute any employment contract for the school year 2021-2022. I asked School X why and it merely explained that there is no opening for me due to the declining enrolment as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Do I have grounds to file a complaint since I already completed three consecutive school years and yet I was not made a permanent or regular employee?
River
Dear River,
The Supreme Court has ruled that the probationary period for teachers will be for a maximum of three years, even if within that period they render service under fixed short-term contracts. The probationary period has been further clarified to mean full-time teaching for three consecutive academic rather than calendar years or six consecutive regular semesters or nine consecutive trimesters.
In your case, it appears that you have rendered service as a full-time teacher for three consecutive academic or school years under one-year fixed term contracts — 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, but your employment ceased as you were not given any teaching load nor did the school execute any employment contract with you thereafter. The foregoing can be characterized as a dismissal for which the Labor Code provisions on authorized causes shall apply, particularly since the reason for the cessation of your employment — declining enrolment as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, indicates that your dismissal was due to redundancy.
There is no mention of compliance with the requirements for the authorized cause of redundancy — written notice issued to you, establishment termination report filed with the Department of Labor and the payment of separation pay equivalent to at least one-month pay for every year of service. Accordingly, you have grounds to file a complaint, and since the termination of your services was done without the observance of procedural due process, you are entitled to nominal damages in the amount of P50,000, in addition to the payment of separation pay. (University of St. La Salle vs Josephine L. Glaraga, et al., G.R. 224170, 10 June 2020)
Atty. Kathy Larios