Two college professors have won a landmark labor case against a school, which was found to have illegally terminated them on faulty grounds of financial losses expected from the rollout of the K-to-12 education reform program.
In its Nov. 9 decision, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) ordered Miriam College to immediately reinstate Rebecca Añonuevo and Ann Debbie Tan and pay them over P1.2 million in back wages and damages.
Añonuevo, an award-winning poet, had taught literature at Miriam for 19 years, and Tan had been a faculty member since 2007, teaching literature, playwriting and business communication and other subjects.
There was no immediate reaction from school administrators.
ACT Teachers Party-list President Benjie Valbuena said the ruling sets a precedent for all other teachers, professors and instructors retrenched due to the K-to-12 program in pursuing “both legal and paralegal actions.”
No convincing evidence
The NLRC ruled that the school failed to show “clear and convincing” evidence validating the retrenchment last June.
The decision said the school had no reasonable criteria for terminating its faculty, offered no alternative measures and failed to prove imminent financial losses due to the K-to-12 program.
“In the end, the ultimate test of determining the validity of retrenchment—whether it was applied as a last resort—is clearly wanting,” said the ruling.
“The school’s separation program, where it intended to remove all General Education (GE) faculty members, without considering alternative plans and remedies, proves that the retrenchment was motivated by ill will, bad faith or malice,” the NLRC said.
In June 2014, Miriam College said its early separation program for GE faculty will be mandatory by May 2015—a year before the full implementation of the K-to-12 program.
Four months later, the school modified the program, making it voluntary effective June 2015 and mandatory a year later.
Cost-cutting measures
On May 10 this year, the two professors and the remaining GE faculty members were informed of their termination on June 13 with separation pay and other benefits.
Miriam College said the K-to-12 program resulted in its freshmen and sophomore enrolment plunging from a yearly average of 900 to 95 this school year.
“Thus, the school was constrained to implement cost-cutting measures, including abolishing and merging departments, personnel transfers and reorganization, as well as the retrenchment program,” it said.