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separate opinion

ROMERO, J.:

Under the facts of the case, I am for the affirmance of the ruling of both the Labor Arbiter and the NLRC that the dismissal of private respondent, being "wrongful, malicious and in bad faith," she should be reinstated. However, I part ways with the Labor Arbiter in denying said reinstatement on the plea of "strained relationship that has developed between petitioner-employer and private respondent employee."

To be sure, strained relations between the employer and employee have been considered by the Court time and again as an exception to the legal precept mandating reinstatement and payment of backwages for illegally dismissed employees. However, to my mind, it has been utilized much too often as a bar to reinstatement on the ground that the resultant antipathy and antagonism are likely to adversely affect the efficiency and productivity of the employee concerned, as well as the realization of management objectives.

I reiterate my opinion in Globe Mackay Cable and Radio Corporation v. NLRC ¹ that the doctrine of strained relations should not be applied indiscriminately to avoid thwarting the intendment of the law to grant reinstatement to illegally dismissed employees. If at all, it must be carefully and adequately proved.

While I recognize that human nature engenders, in the normal course of things, some hostility as a result of litigation, this should not inevitably lead to the conclusion that strained relations thereby exist between the employer and employee sufficient to rule out reinstatement. Although the existence of some ill-feeling or hostility is but to be expected, it should not automatically bar reinstatement.

While there is no hard and fast rule in the application of the doctrine to dismiss rank and file workers and managerial employees, often, it is in the latter group that the strained relations principle finds application.

Granted that respondent, being comptroller, over-all supervisor and financial officer of the company belongs to the category of confidential employees, the possibility of strained relations may be more likely to arise than if she were lower down the managerial hierarchy. Still and all, to apply the doctrine automatically to bar reinstatement is much too harsh that is, on the basis of the finding that the dismissal was unjustified, and therefore, illegal.