G.R. No. 200857, October 22, 2014.
FVR SKILLS AND SERVICES EXPONENTS, INC. (SKILLEX), FULGENCIO V. RANA and MONINA R. BURGOS, Petitioners, vs. JOVERT SEVA, JOSUEL V. VALENCERINA, JANET ALCAZAR, ANGELITO AMPARO, BENJAMIN ANAEN, JR., JOHN HILBERT BARBA, BONIFACIO BATANG, JR., VALERIANO BINGCO, JR., RONALD CASTRO, MARLON CONSORTE, ROLANDO CORNELIO, EDITO CULDORA, RUEL DUNCIL, MERVIN FLORES, LORD GALISIM, SOTERO GARCIA, JR., REY GONZALES, DANTE ISIP, RYAN ISMEN, JOEL JUNIO, CARLITO LATOJA, ZALDY MARRA, MICHAEL PANTANO, GLENN PILOTON, NORELDO QUIRANTE, ROEL RANCE, RENANTE ROSARIO and LEONARDA TANAEL, Respondents.

FACTS

The twenty-eight (28) respondents were employees of petitioner FVR Skills and Services Exponents, Inc., an independent contractor providing janitorial and manpower services. They were hired on various dates from 1998 to 2007 as janitors, service crews, supervisors, and sanitation aides. On April 21, 2008, petitioner entered into a one-year Contract of Janitorial Service with Robinsons Land Corporation for services at Robinsons Place Ermita Mall, and the respondents were deployed there. Midway through this contract, petitioner required the respondents to execute individual employment contracts stipulating that their employment would end on December 31, 2008. After the service contract with Robinsons expired and was not renewed, petitioner dismissed the respondents in January 2009, claiming they were project employees. The respondents filed a complaint for illegal dismissal, arguing they were regular employees. The Labor Arbiter ruled for the petitioner, but the NLRC reversed this, declaring the respondents as regular employees who were illegally dismissed. The Court of Appeals affirmed the NLRC’s decision.

ISSUE

Whether the respondents are regular employees or project employees, and consequently, whether their dismissal was legal.

RULING

The Supreme Court DENIED the petition and affirmed the rulings of the NLRC and CA. The respondents are regular employees, not project employees. Their work as janitors, service crews, and sanitation aides was necessary and desirable to petitioner’s business of providing janitorial and manpower services. They had been continuously employed by the petitioner for years, some since 1998, and were performing the same type of work even before the specific Robinsons contract. Their employment was not fixed for a specific project whose completion was determined at the time of engagement. The individual fixed-term contracts they were made to sign mid-contract were ineffective to alter their regular status and were executed under duress (with a threat of non-payment of salaries). As regular employees illegally dismissed without just or authorized cause, they are entitled to reinstatement or separation pay and full backwages. Petitioners Fulgencio V. Rana and Monina R. Burgos, as corporate officers who acted in bad faith, are solidarily liable with the corporation for the monetary awards.