All the way to the Supreme

his employer. As the lone petitioner, he also included in his suit two other HMR workers, namely Teresa G. SantosCastro, Henry G. Bunag and Nelson S. Camiller, who were identified as company officers.

Lim didn’t win all the way to the High Court because “the labor arbiter ( LA) dismissed the complaint for lack of merit.” However, this didn’t stop him from pursuing his case against HMR.

“On April 11,2003, the National Labor Relations Commission ( NLRC) … reversed the LA and declared Lim to have been illegally dismissed,” the records showed.

The NLRC ruled that “the dismissal of herein complainantappellant was illegal and the respondent appellee company is hereby ordered to reinstate immediately the said employee to his former position without loss of seniority and other privileges.”

The NLRC added: “Furthermore, the company is hereby ordered to pay the complainant- appellant his full backwages, reckoned from his dismissal on February 3, 2001 up to the promulgation of this Decision.” The SC ruling went against HMR Trading House or HMR Philippines, which Due Diligencer decided to take up in this piece as decades ago, casual employees or workers were called “extras”. Despite the term, regularization was automatic after six months.

If decades ago an “extra” deserved to become regular employee, this may not be true today. The proliferation of contractors who supply the

workers needed by big companies has been frustrating efforts towards the regularization of employees.

Who are these contractors? It’s up to the government to make a survey to determine how these contractors make money at the expense of workers.

The case of Lim versus HMR shows us how persistence pays off in the end. One needs the patience to wait in waging a legal battle. Don’t mind even if a company is at a big advantage because it has at its disposal the services of inhouse lawyers. If it wants to, it can even tap outside lawyers to argue its case.

The High Court issued its decision on August 4, 2014. This and 27 days. Lim persisted and his long wait was not in vain.

Who among today’s workers would have the courage to sue their employers as Lim did? Just asking.