Masing & Sons Development Corporation (MSDC) v Rogelio (Labor Standards)

Masing & Sons Development Corporation (MSDC) v Rogelio 

GR No. 161787 

April 27, 2011  

FACTS:   

Rogelio is an employee of the Ibajay branch of MSDC, with Lim as Branch Manager. In 1991, he availed himself of the SSS retirement benefits, and in order to facilitate the grant of such benefits, he entered into an internal arrangement with Chan and MSDC to the effect that MSDC would issue a certification of his separation from employment notwithstanding that he would continue working as a laborer in the Ibajay branch but it was only on 1997 that Rogelio was paid his last salary but without retirement benefits, he was 67 years old at that time.  

Rogelio then filed the case for payment of his retirement benefits before the Labor Arbiter. MSDC defense is that they were not engaged in copra buying in Ibajay and they did not ever register in such business in any government agency and that Lim is an independent copra buyer.  

LA: dismissed. no employer-employee relationship between Rogelio & MSDC. NLRC: dismissed. no double retirement in the private sector. CA: granted. Rogelio is an employee of Chan and MSDC, benefits under RA 7641 is apart from the retirement benefits that a qualified employee could claim under the Social Security Law.  

Hence, Masing appealed to the Supreme Court.  

ISSUE:  WON Rogelio had remained the Company's employee from July 6, 1989 up to March 17, 1997; WON Rogelio is entitled to retirement benefits.  

HELD:  YES,  Rogelio is entitled to retirement benefits.  

Even if there is a Certification of Separation from Employment dated August 10, 1991, "... in light of the incontrovertible physical reality that petitioner and his co-workers did go to work day in and day out for such a long period of time, doing the same thing, and in the same place, without apparent discontinuity, except on paper, these documents cannot be taken at their face value."  

In case of doubt, the doubt is resolved in favor of labor, in favor of the safety and decent living for the laborer as mandated by Article 1702 of the Civil Code. The reality of the petitioner's toil speaks louder than words.  

RATIO: 

(1) In any controversy between a laborer and his master, doubts reasonably arising from the evidence are resolved in favor of the laborer. 

(2) The beneficent provisions of Article 287 of the Labor Code, is apart from the retirement benefits that can be claimed by a qualified employee under the social security law. 

(3) The benefits was enacted as a labor protection measure and as a curative statute to respond, in part at least, to the financial well-being of workers during their twilight years soon following their life of labor, can be extended not only from the date of its enactment but retroactively to the time the employment contracts started."  

APPLICABLE LAWS: 

"ART. 287. Retirement. Any employee may be retired upon reaching the retirement age established in the collective bargaining agreement or other applicable employment contract.  

"In case of retirement, the employee shall be entitled to receive such retirement benefits as he may have earned under existing laws and any collective bargaining agreement and other agreements:  

Provided, however, That an employee's retirement benefits under any collective bargaining and other agreements shall not be less than those provided herein.  

"In the absence of a retirement plan or agreement providing for retirement benefits of employees in the establishment, an employee upon reaching the age of sixty (60) years or more, but not beyond sixty-five (65) years which is hereby declared the compulsory retirement age, who has served at least five (5) years in the said establishment, may retire and shall be entitled to retirement pay equivalent to at least one-half (1/2) month salary for every year of service, a fraction of at least six (6) months being considered as one whole year."  

"Unless the parties provide for broader inclusions, the term 'one-half (1/2) month salary' shall mean fifteen (15) days plus one-twelfth (1/12) of the 13th month pay and the cash equivalent of not more than five (5) days of service incentive leaves. "Retail, service and agricultural establishments or operations employing not more than ten (10) employees or workers are exempted from the coverage of this provision.  

"Violation of this provision is hereby declared unlawful and subject to the penal provisions provided under Article 288 of this Code."