THE Supreme Court (SC) has ruled in favor of 94 members of the Talents Association of GMA Network (TAG), affirming earlier lower court decisions that recognized them as regular employees who were illegally dismissed.
The ruling comes after an 11-year legal battle in which the affected talents sought separation pay and back wages amounting to millions of pesos.
Court records show that some of the workers had rendered as many as 15 years of service at GMA Network without being granted regular employment status.
GMA had argued that the workers were not regular employees but independent contractors under their Talent Agreements.
However, the SC rejected this claim, ruling that the workers could not be considered independent contractors “based on the general terms attached to their Talent Agreement.”
In the same decision, the Court ordered the reinstatement of the illegally dismissed GMA talents without loss of seniority rights and other privileges.
The workers were also declared entitled to full back wages, including allowances and other benefits, or their monetary equivalent, computed from the time their compensation was withheld until their actual reinstatement. / TRC