DIRECTOR Nelson Sarmiento of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in Western Visayas has denied the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by the Board of Directors of the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) against the agency’s earlier decision reinstating its 60 former employees.
Sarmiento said that in order for the MR to be given due course, Baciwa must have presented new evidence or raised valid arguments to warrant the reversal or modifications on CSC’s earlier decision.
He said Baciwa manager Engineer Mike Soliva and the members of the Board neither presented new evidence which would materially affect the CSC Regional Office VI Decision No. 210015 promulgated on August 20 nor raised any valid reason/argument to warrant the setting aside or modification of the same.
Their motion for reconsideration shall be denied for lack of merit, he said.
In January 2021, Baciwa terminated the employees allegedly due to redundancy of positions after the firm inked partnership with Villar-run company Prime Water.
CSC-Western Visayas earlier ordered the Baciwa Board to reinstate the terminated workers without loss of seniority and that they will be entitled to full pay from the time of their separation until actual reinstatement.
Sarmiento stressed that there is no strong indication that the reorganization in Baciwa, following its partnership with PrimeWater, resulted in the redundancy of the positions of the terminated employees.
The official also said the evidence of redundancy is that the existing manpower exceeds more than what is necessary for the operation of a certain agency, which means that an employee’s position may only be declared redundant if his or her services are already in excess of what is demanded by the actual requirement of the agency.