Reliefs and Remedies for Illegally Dismissed Employees : What the Law

States and What Jurisprudence Grants

A Thesis Presented to

The Faculty of College of Law

University of Batangas

Batangas City

In Partial Fulfilment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Juris Doctor (J.D.)

By:

ORLANDA, PAMELA KYLLE A.

 Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Since the effectivity of the Labor Code of the Philippines in 1974 1 , one of the

provisions of the said Code remains insufficient to address the issue of what a worker

who has been unlawfully dismissed is entitled to expect by way of compensation or

redress as a result of such illegal dismissal. This provision is Article 293 [279] (amended

in 1989) which states ─

Art. 293 [279]. Security of tenure ─  In cases of regular employment, the

employer shall not terminate the services of an employee except for a just cause

or when authorized by this Title. An employee who is unjustly dismissed from

work shall be entitled to reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and other

privileges and to his full back wages, inclusive of allowances, and to his other

benefits or their monetary equivalent computed from the time his compensation

was withheld from him up to the time of his actual reinstatement. 

The aforementioned Article provides two remedies which are readily made available

to the illegally dismissed employees, to wit:

1. Reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and other privileges; and

2. Payment of full backwages, inclusive of allowances, and to his other benefits or

their monetary equivalent.

1
LABOR CODE, Art. II
 There are no other provisions in the Labor Code that provide for reliefs and

remedies for unlawfully terminated workers resulting in situations where the court grants

awards and reliefs without any legal basis and thus, manifests a gap in remedies

between similarly situated and circumstantiated employees.

While there are numerous Congressional proposals to protect tenure security,

neither of them has identified such a serious shortcoming and deplorable inadequacy in

Article 293.

This paper will determine if the provision of remedies and reliefs for employees

illegally dismissed is really insufficient under Article 293 Labor Code, as well as to

decide whether the Supreme Court is engaged in "judicial legislation" in declaring and

issuing doctrine relief and remediation decisions not established or established in

accordance with Article 293. This study will also determine if there is a need to amend

Article 293 of the Labor Code to reflect the reliefs and remedies which are not

incorporated into it.

.
Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study is to determine the reliefs and remedies for illegally

dismissed employees provided in Article 293 of the Philippine Labor Code as well as in

the Philippine Jurisprudence.

It aimed to specifically answer the following questions;

1. Does Article 293 of the Labor Code provide sufficient remedies to illegally dismissed

employees?

2. Does the Supreme Court, when declaring and issuing doctrinal decisions on reliefs

and remedies not found or established under Article 293, engage in “judicial

legislation”?

3. Is it necessary to amend Article 293 of the Labor Code to reflect the reliefs and

remedies which are not incorporated into it but which have been doctrinally promulgated

and pronounced by the Supreme Court for years in the case of illegal dismissal?
Significance of the Study

This research study will provide information about the reliefs and remedies for

illegally dismissed employees provided in Article 293 of Labor Code and in the

Philippine Jurisprudence. The researcher strongly believe that this study will of great

help to the different audiences.

The result of this study will increase the awareness of the illegally dismissed

employees about the appropriate reliefs and remedies awarded to them.

For the Government Authorities, this will serve as an instrument for them to fully

understand and how they can solve issue in relation to the said topic.

For the students and the academic community, this will give them information

and deeper understanding about the topic and its consequences to help them be

mindful of the importance of careful delivery of delicate knowledge to others.

And finally, to the future researcher, they can use and depend on this research

study as a reference and related literature in doing their own further investigations about

the topic.
Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

The researcher aimed to determine whether Article 293 of Labor Code is

sufficient in providing the remedies and reliefs to illegally dismissed employees as well

as to determine whether the Supreme Court engage in “judicial legislation” in declaring

and issuing doctrinal decisions on reliefs and remedies not found or established under

Article 293. This study will also determine if there is a need to amend Article 293 of the

Labor Code to reflect the reliefs and remedies which are not incorporated into it Finally,

the study concentrated only on the issues arising from the topic.

This study was delimited to include illegally dismissed employees with names

and specifics mentioned as it will drive issues and negative implications for the research

paper. Authorities were excluded to ensure that the result of this study is unbiased.

This study was limited only up to the extent of the researcher's knowledge about

the topic and the data received from the primary data gathered from thorough research

since the researcher did not have sufficient funds and time to include all the

persons/authorities/agencies might be involved to participate

Conceptual Framework

The first variable used is the Data/Information collected related to the Topic. The

second variable is the legal basis or other provisions related to the topic of the study.

The third variable are the jurisprudence rendered which are concerned with the topic of

the study. The second and third variable basis will serve as the basis for the researcher

to know if the said topic of the study is relevant or not.

The researcher used the variables stated above in analyzing the data collected.

The I-P-O model utilized by the researcher account for the flow of the research

undertaking.

By using the various variables and by following the process indicated, the

researcher have arrived at his desired output. It is to know if Article 293 of Labor Code

sufficient in providing the awards and reliefs for illegally dismissed employees; to know

whether the Supreme Court engage in “judicial legislation” declaring and issuing

doctrinal decisions on reliefs and remedies not found or established under Article 293,

also, if whether it is necessary to amend Article 293 of the Labor Code to reflect the

reliefs and remedies which are not incorporated into it but which have been doctrinally

promulgated and pronounced by the Supreme Court for years in the case of illegal

dismissal.
Definition of Terms

For a better understanding of the study, the following terms are hereby defined:

Amendment – refers to a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution,

or other legal document.

Back wage – refers to prior earned wages for work performed but which remain unpaid.

Illegally dismissed employee - In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful

termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract

of employment has been terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches

one or more terms of the contract of employment, or a statute provision or rule

in employment law.

Judicial Legislation - refers to the move of a court to step in to craft missing parts, to

fill in the gaps in laws, or when it oversteps its discretional boundaries and goes beyond

the law to coin doctrines or principles which are not previously established.

Jurisprudence – refers to the Case law, or the legal decisions which have developed

and which accompany statutes in applying the law against situations of fact.

Law – refers to the a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or

governmental institutions to regulate behavior. It has been defined both as "the science

of justice" and "the art of justice". Law regulates and ensures that individuals or a

community adhere to the will of the state.

Reinstatement - refers to the the action of giving someone back a position they have

lost.
Reliefs – refers to also judicial relief or a judicial remedy, is the means with which a

court of law, usually in the exercise of civil law jurisdiction, enforces a right, imposes a

penalty, or makes another court order to impose its will.

Seniority Rights - refers to the length of time that an individual has served in a job or

worked for an organization.