Case Digest - Labor Law

William Uy Construction vs. Trinidad

GRN 183250 March 10, 2010

Abad, J.;

FACTS:

Trinidad had been working as a driver which identified him as a project employee Company terminated him from work after it shut down operations because of lack of projects. He learned later that although it opened up a project in Batangas, it did not hire him. He filed a complaint for illegal dismissal and unpaid benefits. Labor Arbiter and NLRC dismissed the complaint while CA reversed the same.

ISSUE:

Whether or not petitioner company’s repeated rehiring of respondent over several years as project employee entitled him to the status of a regular employee.

RULING:

Generally, length of service provides a fair yardstick for determining when an employee initially hired on a temporary basis becomes a permanent one, entitled to security and benefits of regularization. But this standard will not be fair, if applied to the construction industry because it cannot guarantee work and funding for its payrolls beyond the life of each project.