The National Labor Relations Commission has just announced that the former GMA Network employees has won on their illegal dismissal case.
According to Rappler, Talents Association of GMA (TAG) attorney Ricardo Lapesura stated that the NLRC ruled that the petitioners whose contracts were not renewed were illegally terminated.
The decision orders the second largest network to reinstate the workers. NLRC also ruled the network to pay back the compensation equivalent to the workers’ monthly salary from the time they were dismissed until their reinstatement. TAG president Christian Cabaluna cited that this incident would cost the network around P21 million.
Last year, NLRC junked GMA Network’s Motion for Reconsideration, siding with the employees for the third time.
The commission ruled out that those TAG members who will be reinstated should be regularized by the network.
Out of 53 petitioners, only 35 TAG members were dismissed through the non-renewal of contracts. The other 18 members involved in the case were terminated because of staging a rally against the network.
“The management changed their payroll mode from an ATM to a check basis. So they were being required to report to get the check and several documents were asked of them. It was really more of burdening them so [the rally] was the response of the TAG members,” Attorney Lapesura explained.
Cabalunan said that they are not expecting the immediate execution anytime soon. He added that GMA Network may still file an appeal.
