FACTS: Private respondents were Television Technicians of GMA Network, and due to miserable working conditions, they were forced to file a complaint against petitioner before the Labor Arbiter. Petitioner received a notice of hearing of the complaint and because of this, private respondents were summoned to the office of petitioner’s Area Manager and they were made to explain why they filed the complaint. The next day, private respondents were barred from entering and reporting for work without any notice stating the reasons therefor.
Respondents claim that they are regular employees of petitioner GMA Network, Inc. The latter, on the other hand, interchangeably characterize respondents’ employment as project and fixed period/fixed term employment.
ISSUE: Whether or not the respondents are regular or project employees.
RULING: The Supreme Court held that even if private respondents are to be considered as project employees, they attained regular employment status, just the same.
Accordingly, a project employee may also attain the status of a regular employee if there is a continuous rehiring of project employees after the stoppage of a project; and the activities performed are usual and customary to the business or trade of the employer. The Supreme Court ruled that a project employee or a member of a work pool may acquire the status of a regular employee when the following concur:
1) There is a continuous rehiring of project employees even after cessation of a project; and
2) The tasks performed by the alleged project employee are vital, necessary and indispensable to the usual business or trade of the employer.
Article 280 of the Labor Code provides that employees performing activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the employer’s usual business or trade can either be regular, project or seasonal employees, while, as a general rule, those performing activities not usually necessary or desirable in the employer’s usual business or trade are casual employees. The activities of project employees may or may not be usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer.
In the realm of business and industry, we note that “project” could refer to one or the other of at least two (2) distinguishable types of activities. Firstly, a project could refer to a particular job or undertaking that is within the regular or usual business of the employer company, but which is distinct and separate, and identifiable as such, from the other undertakings of the company. Such job or undertaking begins and ends at determined or determinable times. Secondly, a particular job or undertaking that is not within the regular business of the corporation. Such a job or undertaking must also be identifiably separate and distinct from the ordinary or regular business operations of the employer. The job or undertaking also begins and ends at determined or determinable times.
