Frances Claire R.

Caceres
Labor Law I Block A

IMBUIDO vs. NLRC

G.R. No. 114734. March 31, 2000
FACTS:
Petitioner Vivian Imbuido was employed as a data encoder by Internal Information
Services, Inc., a domestic corporation engaged in the business of data encoding and
keypunching. During the term of her employment, she entered into thirteen (13) separate
employment contracts with the company, each contract lasting only for three months. On
October 1991, she received a termination letter, allegedly, due to low volume of work. Imbuido
filed for a complaint for illegal dismissal and unfair labor practice and prayed for service
incentive leave pay and other benefits.
The company in its position paper maintained that it has valid reasons for Imbuidos
termination. They stressed that the petitioners work is on a project to project basis, therefore, the
certainty of the expiration of the employees engagement has been determined at the time of their
engagement or when the project is earlier completed or when the client withdraws. Furthermore,
they averred that her claims for non-payment of overtime and service incentive leave pays are
without factual and legal basis.
The Labor Arbiter issued a decision and found Imbuido a regular employee of the
company even if she was hired for a fixed period or for a specific undertaking. The LA further
explains that the purpose of several contracts issued was for the respondent to evade the true
intent and spirit of labor laws for the workingmen. Imbuido should be therefore entitled to
reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and full payment of back wages, including other
benefits. The NLRC reversed this decision, stating that Imbuido is not entitled to benefits for she
is merely a project employee, and not a regular employee.
ISSUE:
Is Imbuido considered as a regular employee even if she has undertaken several
employment contracts, each specifying a fixed period of employment, and therefore be entitled
to service incentive leave pay and benefits?
RULING:
Yes. Imbuido is already a regular employee for she already had acquired such status of
employment. Evidence has shown that the petitioners work as data encoder is usually necessary
and/or desirable in the usual business or trade of her employer which was being continuously
provided for the employee for a period of more than three years as evidenced by the thirteen (13)
successive contracts.
In the case of Maraguinot, Jr. vs. NLRC, it was held that a project employee or a member
of a work pool may acquire the status of a regular employee when the following conditions
concur: 1) there is a continuous rehiring of project employees even after the cessation of a
project; and 2) the tasks performed by the alleged "project employee" are vital, necessary and
indispensable to the usual business or trade of the employer. These conditions were present in the
case of the petitioner.