Labor problems involving universities and colleges

Time and again, the Supreme Court has to give some lengthy lectures to HR managers and Personnel Departments managing some teaching and non-teaching personnel in private universities and colleges. There are many issues concerning hiring and probationary periods, wages and salaries as well as benefits, unions and collective bargaining, unfair labor practices and strikes, and most of all, of employee termination, suspensions, retirement, redundancies and retrenchment and other labor disputes. In the case of Colegio del Santisimo Rosario (GR 170338, 04 September 2013) the High Court the well-settled rule that probationary periods for teaching staff is governed by the Manual of Private Schools. This was the consistent rule as reiterated earlier in AMA Computer School (GR 183572, 12 April 2010). For elementary and high school teachers, probationary period  is three consecutive years of Satisfactory Service. For tertiary levels, six consecutive semesters or nine consecutive trimesters, all with at least Satisfactory Performance Rating.

In the case of Santisimo Rosario, it was however stressed that fixed-term one year employment contracts are allowed, as earlier decided in MAGIS Young Achievers Learning Center (GR 178825, 13 Feb 2009). In the earlier decision in BRENT SCHOOL vs ZAMORA (260 Phili 747, 1990), the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the fixed term employment agreed upon by the employer and the employee, declaring that the restrictive clause in Article 280 (NOW 286) of the Labor Code refers to the substantive evil that the Code itself singled out, which are agreements precisely entered into to circumvent the fundamental right to security of tenure. Even if the services of the employees are necessary to the operations of the school, do not essentially contradict the nature of the employee's duties. (St Theresa's School of Novaliches vs NLRC, 351 Phil 1038, 1998).

In the case of Immaculate Conception Academy vs Camilon (GR 188035, 02 July 2014), the High Tribunal states that when an employee is dismissed due to gross and habitual negligence, the employer is not obligated to pay him or her any separation pay. In that case, the school's chief accountant failed to detect and prevent her subordinate, the cashier, for failing to oversee the cashier who was allegedly responsible for the losses of more than a million pesos. In the case of Chiang Kai Shek College (GR 189456, 02 April 2014), that it was just and reasonable to terminate the services of a teacher who intentionally leaked a copy of the test questions. In the case of Cainta Catholic School (GR 151021, 04 May 2006), the Supreme Court held that the management decision to retire two employees, pursuant to a provision in the collective bargaining agreement, is not an unfair labor practice.

In the case of WESLEYAN University, Philippines (GR 181806, 12 March 2014), the University Administration cannot just change a policy that is explicitly provided in the collective bargaining agreement, without the consent of the union and the employees themselves. Since the CBA provided for two retirement pays the management must comply with the same. The contract is the law between the parties. In the Chiang Kai Sek case, abovementioned, the Court reminded the parties that resignations to be valid must be really voluntary and not imposed upon by the employer on the employee. When there is an overt act of giving up one's position coupled with a clear intent to relinquish, then there is resignation. The Court implies that when resignation is made because of undue pressures, then the employee's consent might have been vitiated and that would taint the validity of the resignation.

 The Court, nonetheless stressed in the Chiang Kai Shek case that when there is a valid and fair compromise agreement, then the will of the parties should be upheld. Although in many cases, quitclaims and waivers are frowned upon and are looked down with some measure of suspicion, however, if the agreement enjoys the intrinsic merit of being fair and reasonable, as well as the extrinsic merit of having been entered into with full knowledge, freedom to contract and voluntariness of the meeting of the minds, then the same should be honored by the courts.  This writer has been a professor in various colleges and universities, mostly in the colleges of law. We have analyzed, discussed and lectured on hundreds, if not thousands of cases involving labor cases in the academe. Based on our findings, the Supreme Court always tries to maintain the balance between the rights of school personnel on the one hand, and the management prerogatives of school administrators and managers on the other. It is thus important that personnel and HR managers in private universities and colleges should master the rules and be always updated on the latest jurisprudence and laws.

 There is no substitute to knowledge of labor laws so as to maintain peace and harmony in labor-management relations based on mutual respect and balanced perspectives between rights of labor and the prerogatives of the private schools.