April 2016 - Philippine Supreme Court Decisions/Resolutions
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G.R. No. 195155, April 13, 2016 - DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF LAOAG, Petitioner, v. SHIRLEY B. MINA, AS HEIR-SUBSTITUTE OF THE LATE DELFIN A. MINA, Respondent.:
G.R. No. 195155, April 13, 2016 - DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF LAOAG, Petitioner, v. SHIRLEY B. MINA, AS HEIR-SUBSTITUTE OF THE LATE DELFIN A. MINA, Respondent.
THIRD DIVISION
G.R. No. 195155, April 13, 2016
DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF LAOAG, Petitioner, v. SHIRLEY B. MINA, AS HEIR-SUBSTITUTE OF THE LATE DELFIN A. MINA, Respondent.
D E C I S I O N
REYES, J.:
Assailed in this petition for review1 under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court is the Decision2 dated July 19, 2010 and Resolution3 dated January 13, 2011 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. SP No. 107749 declaring respondent Delfin A. Mina (Mina) to have been constructively dismissed by petitioner Divine Word College of Laoag (DWCL) and awarding him backwages, damages and attorney's fees.
DWCL is a non-stock educational institution offering catholic education to the public. It is run by the Society of Divine Word (SVD), a congregation of Catholic priests that maintains several other member educational institutions throughout the country.4
On July 1, 1969, the Society of Divine Word Educational Association (DWEA) established a Retirement Plan to provide retirement benefits for qualified employees of DWEA's member institutions, offices and congregations.5 The DWEA Retirement Plan6 contains a clause about the portability of benefits, to wit:
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When a member who resigns or is separated from employment from one Participating Employer and who is employed by another Participating Employer, the member will carry the credit he earned under his former Participating Employer to his new Employer and the length of service in both will be taken into consideration in determining his total years of continuous service on the following conditions:Mina was first employed in 1971 as a high school teacher, and later on a high school principal, at the Academy of St. Joseph (ASJ), a school run by the SVD. On June 1, 1979, he transferred to DWCL and was accorded a permanent status after a year of probationary status.8 He was subsequently transferred in 2002 to DWCL's college department as an Associate Professor III. Thereafter, on June 1, 2003, Mina was assigned as the College Laboratory Custodian of the School of Nursing and was divested of his teaching load, effective June 1, 2003 until May 31, 2004, subject to automatic termination and without need for any further notification.9 He was the only one among several teachers transferred to the college department who was divested of teaching load.10
- The transfer is approved by both the Participating Employer whose service he is leaving and the new Participating Employer;
- The Retirement Board is notified of the transfer; and
- The member is employed by another Participating Employer on the next working day after his resignation.7
In early June 2004, Mina was offered early retirement by Professor Noreen dela Rosa, Officer-in-Charge of DWCL's School of Nursing. He initially declined the offer because of his family's dependence on him for support. He later received a Memorandum11 dated July 27, 2004 from the Office of the Dean enumerating specific acts of gross or habitual negligence, insubordination, and reporting for work under the influence of alcohol. He answered the allegations against him;12 sensing, however, that it was pointless to continue employment with DWCL, he requested that his retirement date be adjusted to September 2004 to enable him to avail of the 25-year benefits. He also requested for the inclusion of his eight years of service in ASJ, to make his total years of service to 33 years pursuant to the portability clause of the retirement plan, which was denied by DWCL. Instead, he was paid P275,513.10 as retirement pay.13 It was made to appear that his services were terminated by reason of redundancy to avoid any tax implications. Mina was also made to sign a deed of waiver and quitclaim14 stating that he no longer has any claim against DWCL with respect to any matter arising from his employment in the school.15
On September 21, 2004, he filed a case for illegal dismissal and recovery of separation pay and other monetary claims.16 Pending resolution of his case, Mina passed away on June 18, 2005.17
On August 26, 2005, the Labor Arbiter (LA) rendered its Decision,18 ruling that the actuation of DWCL is not constitutive of constructive dismissal. The LA ratiocinated, however, that the computation of Mina's retirement pay based on redundancy is illegal; hence, it was modified, and the number of years he worked for ASJ was added to the years he worked for DWCL thus making his creditable number of years of service to 33 years. According to the LA, his length of service in both institutions will be taken into consideration in determining his total years of continuous service since the DWEA Retirement Plan has a provision on portability, which allows a member to carry the earned credit for his number of years of service from his former participating employer to his new employer. Moreover, the LA held that there is no showing that Mina ceased to be a member of the plan when he left the ASJ as there was not a day that he was separated from any school that is the member of the plan. The LA's computation of Mina's retirement benefits is as follows:
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Monthly salary: P13,006.23