Saturday, February 24, 2007
Strained relations
By Dominador A. Almirante
Labor case digest
IN case for illegal dismissal filed by petitioner Marilyn T. Sagum against private respondent Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers of the Philippines Inc., the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the labor arbiter declaring her dismissal illegal.
However, while it awarded her full backwages, the appellate court only ordered the payment of separation pay in lieu of reinstatement due to strained relations between the parties. Was the order not to reinstate the petitioner justified?
Ruling: No.
The existence of strained relations is a factual finding and should be initially raised, argued and proven before the labor arbiter (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. versus Tolentino, G.R. No. 143171, Sept. 21, 2004, citing Quijano versus Mercury Drug Corp. July 8, 1998, 292 SCRA 109).
Petitioner is correct that the finding of strained relations does not have any basis on the records. Indeed, nowhere was the issue raised in private respondents’ pleadings before the labor arbiter and the NLRC. Sieving through the records, private respondents first raised the issue in their comment to petitioner’s motion for partial reconsideration before the Court of Appeals. In Globe-Mackay Cable and Radio Corp. versus NLRC, G.R. No. 82511, March 3, 1992 (206 SCRA 701, 709), we emphasized that the principle of strained relations cannot be applied indiscriminately. Otherwise, an illegally dismissed employee can never be reinstated because invariably, some hostility is engendered between litigants.
As a rule, no strained relations should arise from a valid and legal act of asserting one’s right; otherwise, an employee who asserts his right could be easily separated from the service by merely paying his separation pay on the pretext that his relationship with his employer had already become strained (Marilyn T. Sagum versus Court of Appeals, et. al. G.R. No. 158759, May 26, 2005).
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