Imbuido v. NLRC [G.R. No. 114734, March 31, 2000]

FACTS: Petitioner was employed as a date encoder by private respondent. From 1988 until 1991, she entered into 13 employment contracts with private respondent, each contract for a period of 3 months. In September 1991, petitioner and 12 other employees allegedly agreed to the filing of a PCE of the rank and file employees of private respondent. Subsequently, petition received a termination latter due to “low volume of work.” Petitioner filed a complaint for illegal dismissal. The labor Arbiter found in favor of petitioner ruling that she was a regular employee. The NLRC reversed the decision stating that although petitioner is a regular employee, she has no tenurial security beyond the period for which she was hired (only up to the time the specific project for which she was hired was completed). Petitioner filed the present appeal.


ISSUE: W/N petitioner is a regular employee entitled to tenurial security and was therefore unjustly dismissed.


HELD: Yes. Even though petitioner is a project employee, as in the case of Maraguinot, Jr. v. NLRC, the court held that a project employee or member of a work pool may acquire the status of a regular employee when the following concur:

1. there is continuous rehiring of project employees even after the cessation of a project,
2. the tasks performed by the alleged “project employee” are vital, necessary and indispensable to the usual business and trade of the employer.

Private respondent was employed as a data encoder performing duties, which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer, continuously for a period of more than 3 years. Being a regular employee, petitioner is entitled to security of tenure and could only be dismissed for a just and authorized cause; low volume of work is not a valid cause for dismissal under Art. 282 or 283. Having worked for more than 3 years, petitioner is also entitled to service incentive leave benefits from 1989 until her actual reinstatement since such is demandable after one year of service, whether continuous or broken.