Case Digest - Begino Vs ABS

AUTHOR: CHA
NELSON V. BEGINO, GENER DEL VALLE, MONINA NOTES:

A VILA-LLORIN AND MA. CRISTINA SUMAYAO vs. To determine the existence employer-employee relationship,
ABS-CBN CORPORATION (FORMERLY, ABS-CBN case law has consistently applied the four-fold test, to wit:
BROADCASTING CORPORATION) AND AMALIA (a) the selection and engagement of the employee; (b) the
VILLAFUERTE [G.R. No. 199166, April 20, 2015] payment of wages;(c) the power of dismissal; and (d) the
employer's power to control the employee on the means and
TOPIC: Employer-Employee Relationship methods by which the work is accomplished. Of these
PONENTE: Perez criteria, the so-called "control test" is generally regarded as
the most crucial and determinative indicator of the presence
or absence of an employer-employee relationship. Under
this test, an employer-employee relationship is said to exist
where the person for whom the services are performed
reserves the right to control not only the end result but
also the manner and means utilized to achieve the same.
FACTS:
- Respondent ABS-CBN Corporation (formerly ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation) is a television and radio
broadcasting corporation which, for its Regional Network Group in Naga City, employed respondent Amalia Villafuerte as
Manager. Thru Villafuerte, ABS-CBN engaged the services of petitioners Begino and Del Valle sometime in 1996 as
Cameramen/Editors for TV Broadcasting while Sumayao and Llorin were engaged as reporters sometime in 1996 and
2002, respectively.
- Talent Contracts were executed which, though regularly renewed over the years, provided terms ranging from three (3)
months to one (1) year, petitioners were given Project Assignment Forms which detailed, among other matters, the
duration of a particular project as well as the budget and the daily technical requirements of coverage of news items for
subsequent daily airings in respondents’ TV Patrol Bicol Program.
- While specifically providing that nothing therein shall be deemed or construed to establish an employer-employee
relationship between the parties, the Talent Contracts included provisions on creation and performance of work in
accordance with the ABS-CBN’s professional standards and compliance with its policies and guidelines covering
intellectual property creators, industry codes as well as the rules and regulations of the KBP and other regulatory agencies,
non-engagement in similar work for a person or entity directly or indirectly in competition with or adverse to the interests
of ABS-CBN and non-promotion of any product or service without prior written consent, and results-oriented nature of the
talent’s work which did not require them to observe normal or fixed working hours.
- Claiming that they were regular employees of ABS-CBN, petitioners filed against respondents the complaint before the
NLRC for regularization, underpayment of overtime pay, holiday pay, 13th month pay, service incentive leave pay,
damages and attorney's fees. Petitioners alleged that they performed functions necessary and desirable in ABS-CBN's
business but were not paid the labor standard benefits the law extends to regular employees, instead respondents
purportedly resorted to the simple expedient of using said Talent Contracts and/or Project Assignment Forms which
denominated petitioners as talents, despite the fact that they are not actors or TV hosts of special skills.
- Respondent argued that, not having the full manpower complement to produce its own program, the company had
allegedly resorted to engaging independent contractors like actors, directors, artists, anchormen, reporters, scriptwriters
and various production and technical staff, who offered their services in relation to a particular program. Moreover,
company cannot afford to provide regular work for talents with whom it negotiates specific or determinable professional
fees on a per project, weekly or daily basis, usually depending on the budget allocation for a project. 8
- LA Quiñones, as affirmed by NLRC, ruled in favor of petitioners who, having rendered services necessary and related to
ABS-CBN’s business for more than a year as its regular employees. However, CA that no employer-employee relationship.
Hence, this petition.
ISSUE: WON there was an employer-employee relationship between the parties?
HELD: YES. Court reversed and set aside CA, reinstated NLRC ruling except reinstatement.
RATIO:
- Because they are imbued with public interest, labor contracts are subject to the police power of the state and are placed
on a higher plane than ordinary contracts. The recognized supremacy of the law over the nomenclature of the contract and
the stipulations contained therein is aimed at bringing life to the policy enshrined in the Constitution to afford protection to
labor.
- Article 280 of the LC provides:
ART. 280. Regular and Casual Employment.— The provisions of written agreement to the contrary notwithstanding and
regardless of the oral agreement of the parties, an employment shall be deemed to be regular where the employee has
been engaged to perform activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the
employer, except where the employment has been fixed for a specific project or undertaking the completion or
termination of which has been determined at the time of the engagement of the employee or where the work or
service to be performed is seasonal in nature and the employment is for the duration of the season.
- An employment shall be deemed to be casual if it is not covered by the preceding paragraph: Provided, that, any
employee who has rendered at least one year of service, whether such service is continuous or broken, shall be
considered a regular employee with respect to the activity in which he is employed and his employment shall
continue while such actually exists.
- Four kinds of employees, namely: (a) regular employees or those who have been engaged to perform activities which are
usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer; (b) project employees or those whose
employment has been fixed for a specific project or undertaking, the completion or termination of which has been
determined at the time of the engagement of the employee; (c) seasonal employees or those who work or perform services
which are seasonal in nature, and the employment is for the duration of the season; and (d) casual employees or those who
are not regular, project, or seasonal employees. Jurisprudence has added that of contractual or fixed term employee which,
if not for the fixed term, would fall under the category of regular employment in view of the nature of the employee’s
engagement, which is to perform activity usually necessary or desirable in the employer’s business.
- The test to determine whether employment is regular or not is the reasonable connection between the activity
performed by the employee in relation to the business or trade of the employer. As cameramen/editors and
reporters, petitioners were undoubtedly performing functions necessary and essential to ABS-CBN’s business of
broadcasting television and radio content. It matters little that petitioners’ services were engaged for specified
periods for TV Patrol Bicol and that they were paid according to the budget allocated therefor.
- Aside from the fact that said program is a regular weekday fare of the ABS-CBN’s Regional Network Group in Naga City
and that petitioners were continuously re-hired by respondents over the years, thus, indicates that they were ABS-CBN’s
regular employees.
- If the employee has been performing the job for at least one year, even if the performance is not continuous or
merely intermittent, the law deems the repeated or continuing performance as sufficient evidence of the necessity, if
not indispensability of that activity in the business. When circumstances show that contractually stipulated periods of
employment have been imposed to preclude the acquisition of tenurial security by the employee, Court has not hesitated in
striking down such arrangements as contrary to public policy, morals, good customs or public order. The nature of the
employment depends on the nature of the activities to be performed by the employee, considering the nature of the
employer’s business, the duration and scope to be done, and, in some cases, even the length of time of the
performance and its continued existence.
- As cameramen/editors and reporters, it appears that petitioners were subject to the control and supervision of respondents.
The presumption is that when the work done is an integral part of the regular business of the employer and when
the worker, relative to the employer, does not furnish an independent business or professional service, such work is
a regular employment of such employee and not an independent contractor.
CASE LAW/ DOCTRINE:
DISSENTING/CONCURRING OPINION(S):

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AUTHOR: CHA

NELSON V. BEGINO, GENER DEL VALLE, MONINA NOTES:

ISSUE: WON there was an employer-employee relationship between the parties?

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