Title
Supreme Court
International School Alliance of Educators vs. Quisumbing
Case
G.R. No. 128845
Decision Date
Jun 1, 2000
A labor dispute arose over salary disparity between foreign and local hires at a school, with the Supreme Court ruling against discriminatory pay practices, upholding "equal pay for equal work," but allowing separate bargaining units.

Case Digest (G.R. No. L-70308)
Expanded Legal Reasoning Model

Facts:

  • Nature and Authority of the School
    • International School, Inc. (the School) is a domestic educational institution established under Presidential Decree No. 732 to serve dependents of foreign diplomatic personnel and temporary residents.
    • Section 2(c) of PD 732 authorizes the School to employ teaching and management personnel locally or abroad, exempt from general labor regulations except laws enacted for employee protection.
  • Classification and Compensation of Faculty
    • The School classifies faculty into “foreign-hires” and “local-hires” based on four point-of-hire tests: domicile, home economy, economic allegiance, and whether hired abroad and brought to the Philippines.
    • Foreign-hires receive a 25% higher salary plus housing, transportation, shipping, tax coverage, and home-leave allowances, justified by the School as compensation for “dislocation” and “limited tenure.”
  • Collective Bargaining Dispute
    • In June 1995, the International School Alliance of Educators (ISAE), representing all faculty, challenged the salary differential and sought inclusion of foreign-hires in the bargaining unit. A strike notice was filed on September 7, 1995.
    • The DOLE Acting Secretary issued an order (June 10, 1996) upholding the School’s classification; the Labor Secretary denied reconsideration (March 19, 1997). ISAE elevated the matter to the Supreme Court.

Issues:

  • Whether the point-of-hire classification justifying a 25% salary differential between foreign-hires and local-hires violates the principle of equal pay for equal work and public policy against discrimination.
  • Whether foreign-hires should be included in the same collective bargaining unit as local-hires.

Ruling:

  • (Subscriber-Only)

Ratio:

  • (Subscriber-Only)

Doctrine:

  • (Subscriber-Only)

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