GR 155264; (May, 2005) (Digest)
G.R. No. 155264 ; May 6, 2005
FLOREN HOTEL and/or LIGAYA CHU, DELY LIM and JOSE CHUA LIM, petitioners, vs. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION, RODERICK A. CALIMLIM, RONALD T. RICO, JUN A. ABALOS, LITO F. BAUTISTA and GLORIA B. LOPEZ, respondents.
FACTS
Petitioners Floren Hotel and its owners employed private respondents in various capacities. On June 6, 1998, petitioner Dely Lim discovered respondent Lito Bautista sleeping half-naked in a hotel room and respondents Roderick Calimlim and Ronald Rico drinking beer inside another room, both with the air-conditioning on. Bautista refused a memorandum detailing his offenses and went on absence without leave (AWOL). Calimlim and Rico were served a one-week suspension notice, which they initially refused but served. Upon their return, a memorandum on the bulletin board announced their suspension or, alternatively, their return to work on probation as janitors, citing various infractions including the drinking incident. They submitted apologies but subsequently went AWOL. All private respondents eventually filed complaints for illegal dismissal and money claims.
ISSUE
Whether the private respondents were illegally dismissed or had voluntarily abandoned their employment.
RULING
The Supreme Court ruled that private respondents were illegally dismissed. For Calimlim and Rico, the act of posting a memorandum offering demotion to janitorial positions as an alternative to suspension constituted constructive dismissal. A transfer that involves a demotion in rank or a diminution in pay is invalid without the employee’s consent. Here, the reassignment, even without a proven wage reduction, was a punitive demotion in rank from room boys to janitors, which was unreasonable and attended by bad faith, compelling them to forsake their employment. For Bautista, Abalos, and Lopez, the Court found the claim of abandonment unsubstantiated. Abandonment requires a clear, deliberate, and unjustified refusal to resume employment, which petitioners failed to prove. The immediate filing of complaints for illegal dismissal after the incidents negated any intention to abandon their jobs. Consequently, petitioners were liable for illegal dismissal and ordered to provide reinstatement with full backwages or separation pay, in addition to the awarded monetary benefits.