This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2007-09-28 |
CHICO-NAZARIO, J. |
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| On 18 November 2005, the Court of Appeals dismissed the Petition for Certiorari and affirmed the Resolutions of the NLRC finding respondent to be a regular employee. The Court of Appeals grounded its Decision on this Court's previous rulings that what determines regularity or casualness is not the employment contract, written or otherwise, but the nature of the job. Citing De Leon v. National Labor Relations Commission,[15] which enumerated the standards for determining regular employment, the Court of Appeals ruled that even assuming that respondent was able to render services for only 228.5 days in a period of 36 months, the fact remains that his services were continuously utilized by petitioners in their business. Where the job is usually necessary or desirable to the main business of the employer, then the employment is regular.[16] The pertinent portions of the assailed Decision of the Court of Appeals are herein reproduced: Applying the above-mentioned principles, private respondent's task of loading and unloading cargoes to and from the vessels is undoubtedly necessary and desirable to the business of petitioners' arrastre and stevedoring services. Equally unavailing is the petitioners' contention that being a reliever or an extra worker, private respondent cannot be deemed as a regular employee. This cannot be accorded with merit as the same does not change the nature of the latter's employment. Whether private respondent was hired only in the absence of regular stevedores, as petitioners maintain, let it be emphasized that the determination of whether the employment is casual or regular does not depend on the will or word of the employer, and the procedure of hiring and manner of paying, but on the nature of the activities performed by an employee, and to some extent, the length of performance, and its continued existence. Petitioners' admission that it has been an industry practice to hire relievers whenever the need arises to ensure that operations at the pier continue for 24 hours only proves that private respondent's services are necessary or desirable in its usual business, otherwise, private respondent should not have been at the employ of petitioners for a period [of] 36 months. Even assuming that private respondent was able to render only 228.5 days out of 36 months, the undisputed fact remains that private respondent's services was continuously utilized by petitioners in the operation of its business. Whether one's employment is regular is not determined by the number of the hours one works, but by the nature of the work and by the length of time one has been in that particular job. To uphold petitioners' argument would preclude and deprive workers, like private respondent herein, to acquire regular status favorably mandated by the Labor Code. | |||||