Title
Roxas vs. Baliwag Transit, Inc.
Case
G.R. No. 231859
Decision Date
Feb 19, 2020
Bus driver Gerardo Roxas claimed constructive dismissal after reduced work assignments due to government regulations. SC ruled no constructive dismissal but found his termination illegal, ordering reinstatement or separation pay.
constructive dismissal
reduction in work assignment
government regulation

Case Summary (G.R. No. 231859)

Factual Background

Gerardo C. Roxas was a bus driver employed by Baliwag Transit, Inc. since March 24, 1998 and was paid on a commission basis. Pursuant to LTFRB Resolution No. 2013-01, BTI phased out certain buses in 2012, which reduced Roxas’s assignment from a regular three-week duty to a reliever role amounting to two weeks per month. Roxas filed a complaint for constructive dismissal and related monetary claims on June 5, 2014. On the date set for the NLRC hearing, July 2, 2014, Roxas received a duty assignment and proceeded to the terminal to inform management of his inability to assume the assignment because of the hearing; management warned him of abandonment. He received a notice to explain dated July 11, 2014 and submitted a response dated July 21, 2014. His initial complaint was dismissed for improper venue on October 15, 2014. Roxas refiled substantially the same complaint before RAB III on February 16, 2015 and later alleged that after doing so respondents ceased assigning him trips and charged him with indiscriminate filing of labor cases. On July 21, 2015 respondents issued a notice terminating Roxas for gross misconduct, insubordination, indiscriminate filing of cases, and absence without official leave.

Trial and Arbiter Proceedings

Roxas’s second complaint proceeded before the Labor Arbiter. The Labor Arbiter found that Roxas was not constructively dismissed because he continued to receive assignments after June 4, 2014 and because the reduction in work duty applied to all affected drivers as a consequence of the government-imposed phase out. The Arbiter nonetheless imposed the penalty of dismissal for Roxas’s repeated and unjustified failure to submit explanations and for alleged abandonment or insubordination. The Arbiter denied Roxas’s claim for thirteenth month pay on the ground that he was paid on a pure commission basis and dismissed his other money claims for lack of factual and legal basis. The Arbiter dismissed the complaint with prejudice in a Decision dated October 30, 2015.

NLRC Proceedings

On appeal the NLRC, in its Resolution dated January 8, 2016, affirmed the Labor Arbiter’s findings in toto. The NLRC held that the reduced work scheme was not discriminatory because it applied to all drivers and conductors and was compelled by the LTFRB phase out, which superseded the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The NLRC further found that Roxas’s eventual dismissal was justified for insubordination, abandonment, and failure to heed management directives, which it treated as just causes under Article 297 (formerly Article 282) of the Labor Code. The NLRC denied reconsideration in a Resolution dated February 29, 2016.

Court of Appeals Ruling

The Court of Appeals denied Roxas’s petition for certiorari in a Decision dated November 23, 2016. The CA agreed with the tribunals that there was no constructive dismissal because the reduction of Roxas’s work week stemmed from a government-imposed restriction affecting all similarly situated employees and was a valid exercise of management prerogative. The CA upheld the substantive basis for dismissal, finding Roxas’s refusal to submit further explanation and his calling an investigator a liar to be disobedience and disrespect sufficient to sustain dismissal. The CA, however, found procedural infirmities in the notices issued to Roxas and awarded nominal damages of P30,000. Both parties moved for reconsideration, which the CA denied in its April 17, 2017 Resolution.

Issue Presented to the Supreme Court

The central issue before the Court was whether the Court of Appeals gravely abused its discretion in affirming the labor tribunals’ conclusion that Roxas was not constructively dismissed and that his later termination was valid, and whether Roxas was entitled to relief for illegal dismissal and related monetary claims.

Constructive Dismissal Analysis

The Court reviewed the doctrine of constructive dismissal and applied the accepted test whether a reasonable person in the employee’s position would have felt compelled to give up employment because of employer conduct that rendered continued employment impossible, unreasonable, or unlikely. The Court found that although Roxas’s reduction in work assignment diminished his pay and benefits, the reduction did not amount to an act of clear discrimination, insensibility, or disdain sufficiently oppressive to force involuntary resignation. The Court emphasized that the reduction resulted from BTI’s compliance with LTFRB Resolution No. 2013-01 and was applied across the board to affected drivers and conductors, thereby constituting a bona fide exercise of management prerogative done in good faith. Reliance on the Court’s antecedent recognition of broad management prerogatives, as in Moya v. First Solid Rubber Industries, Inc., supported the conclusion that the CA did not grievously err in rejecting constructive dismissal.

Validity of Termination: Substantive Grounds

Turning to the separate incident of termination on July 21, 2015, the Court applied Article 297 and the employer’s burden to prove just cause by substantial evidence. The Court examined respondents’ asserted grounds of gross misconduct for indiscriminate filing of complaints, insubordination for failure to submit additional explanations, and abandonment. The Court held that respondents failed to establish these causes by substantial evidence. The filing of complaints was not shown to have been motivated by wrongful intent or malice; it was reasonable in light of the diminution of pay and benefits and possible contravention of BTI’s own internal rule requiring two hundred days of work per year. The Court reiterated the elements of serious misconduct and found them absent. As to insubordination, the Court applied the two-pronged test that the employee’s conduct be willful and that the order violated be reasonable, lawful, and related to duties. Roxas had already submitted explanations and his refusal to comply with subsequent reiterations of the same directive did not constitute willful disobedience but at most a waiver of procedural due process. On abandonment, the Court observed that mere absence does not establish abandonment; the employer must show overt acts demonstrating intent not to return to work, which respondents did not prove.

Relief: Reinstatement, Backwages, and Fees

Because respondents failed to prove just cause, the Court concluded that Roxas was illegally dismissed. The Court ordered that Roxas be reinstated without loss of seniority and be paid full backwages, inclusive of allowances, and other benefits from the time compensation was withheld in accordance with Article 294 of the Labor Code, unless reinstatement was no longer viable in which case respondents could opt to pay separation pay. The Court remanded the case to the Labor Arbiter to determine whether reinstatement remained viable given the passage of time and operational changes, and to compute the exact monetary benefits due. The Court denied Roxas’s claim for thirteenth month pay and other money claims for lack of basis, citing Secti

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