(Eagle News) — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is planning to file a motion for reconsideration before the Court of Appeals to appeal its decision regarding the department order directing telecommunications giant PLDT Inc, to regularize 7,344 workers hired from third party contractors.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that he had asked Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod to look into the matter since the affected workers had already expressed fears that the CA decision could set a “dangerous precedent.”
The July 31 CA decision modified a labor department order to PLDT regarding the regularization of workers hired by third- party contractors for the various services of PLDT.
It sustained the DOLE order with “modifications” and said that only the workers of contractors performing installations, repairs and maintenance services of the PLDT lines should be considered for regularization.
The workers involved in the janitorial, clerical and call center services “should remain employees of the independent contractors,” it said.
In the CA decision, the court said “we commiserate and appreciate the toil and hardship of the employees affected by this Decision, and recognize that we should view with compassion their inadequately addressed plight. Nevertheless, this sense of compassion should be coupled with a sense of fairness and justice to all the parties concerned.”
“Hence, while social justice has an inclination to give protection to the working class, the cause of the labor sector is not upheld at all times as the employer has also a right entitled to respect in the interest of simple fair play,” the decision added.
The 47-page decision was penned by Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon, concurred by Associate Justices Sesinado Villon and Maria Filomena Singh.
Earlier, the DOLE had ordered the telephone company to regularize its over 8,000 contractual workers.
However, last month, PLDT questioned the regularization orders of the DOLE before the appellate court.