The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that illegally dismissed probationary employees, like regular employees, are entitled to backwages not only until the end of their probationary period but up to their actual reinstatement.
In case the reinstatement is no longer feasible, the backwages must be computed from the time compensation was withheld up to the finality of the decision in the illegal dismissal case, the SC pointed out in a decision dated April 16, 2024 and written by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho Jr.
It stressed that the right to security of tenure under the Constitution and the Labor Code applies to both regular and probationary employees.
At the same time, the SC said that the mere lapse of the probationary period without regularization does not by itself sever the employment relationship.
Without any valid grounds to dismiss a probationary employee, there is no basis to terminate the employment. Thus, the employee is entitled to work even beyond the probationary period, it said.
The summary of the decision was issued by the SC’s public information office (PIO) on Monday, April 29. A copy of the decision has not been made public.
The ruling was contained in the decision that dismissed the petition filed by C.P. Reyes Hospital which challenged the decision and resolution issued by the Court of Appeals
A background of the case issued by the PIO stated that in September 2013, Geraldine M. Barbosa signed a six-month probationary employment contract with C.P. Reyes Hospital where she would train as a staff nurse, then as a ward head nurse, and finally as training supervisor.
The PIO said that on Dec. 30, 2013, C.P. Reyes Hospital terminated Barbosa’s probationary employment, citing negative performance feedback. Barbosa filed a complaint for illegal dismissal against C.P. Reyes Hospital, it said.
The labor arbiter ruled that Barbosa was illegally dismissed, finding that the numerical passing marks given by her evaluators showed she successfully met C.P. Reyes Hospital’s standards, it also said.
“While the NLRC (National Labor Relations Commission) subsequently reversed the Labor Arbiter, the Court of Appeals reinstated the Labor Arbiter’s ruling in favor of Barbosa,” the PIO said.
C.P. Reyes Hospital challenged the CA’s decision before the SC. The PIO said the SC denied the hospital’s petition and ruled that Barbosa was illegal dismissed and entitled to backwages.
The PIO said quoting from the SC decision:
“Probationary employment may be terminated when the employee fails to qualify as a regular employee in accordance with reasonable standards made known by the employer to the employee at the time of engagement.
“However, in Barbosa’s case, the SC found her dismissal baseless since she obtained the passing grades needed to meet the standards for regularization based on the probationary employment contract.
“On the other hand, the SC found C.P. Reyes Hospital’s claims of unsatisfactory performance ungenuine as they were only issued two weeks after Barbosa had already been terminated and without an accompanying performance evaluation.
“As Barbosa was illegally dismissed, she is entitled to reinstatement, full backwages, and other benefits. To determine the amount of backwages due Barbosa, the Court harmonized conflicting jurisprudence.
“The SC thus ruled that in Barbosa’s case, backwages should be computed from Jan. 1, 2014, when compensation was withheld from her, until the finality of the SC Decision.”