PLDT Inc. said Monday it obtained an injunction from the Court of Appeals against the order of the Labor Department to regularize 7,344 workers from its 38 third-party service contractors.
The CA, in a decision dated July 31, set aside the regularization order of the department on several functions. The appellate court declared there was labor-only contracting on the following functions: janitorial services, messengerial, clerical services, IT services, sales and medical professional services.
The CA, however, said the contractual workers performing installation, repair, and maintenance of PLDT lines should be regularized.
PLDT said the CA agreed with the company’s contention that Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III’s regularization order was “tainted with grave abuse of discretion” because it did not meet the “substantial evidence standards set out by the Supreme Court in landmark jurisprudence.”
The court ruled that the Labor Department’s appreciation of evidence leaned in favor of the contract workers and that the secretary had “lost sight” of distinctions involving the labor law concepts of “control over means and methods” and “control over results.”
“PLDT and its legal counsel are studying the Court of Appeals decision to determine the company’s appropriate next steps,” PLDT said.
Bello earlier said PLDT violated the labor law by engaging in “labor-only contracting schemes” by employing the services of 38 service contractors.
The department also issued cease and desist orders to 38 contractors for engaging in labor-only contracting schemes. This means that they are prohibited from operating a contracting business and that the workers they deployed to PLDT should be regularized under the telecommunications company.
PLDT then advised its customers about operational issues, after the Labor Department issued the cease and desist order to a number of its service providers requiring them to stop rending services to PLDT.
The country’s largest telecom company earlier reported a net income of P6.9 billion in January to March, up by 39 percent from P4.9 billion in the same period last year.
Consolidated core income reached P6.1 billion in the three-month period, up 14 percent from a year ago.
Core income, excluding that of unit Voyager, rose 23 percent year-on-year to P6.7 billion, which if annualized would put the company ahead of its income guidance of P23 billion to 24 billion for 2018.
PLDT’s consolidated service revenues amounted to P36.7 billion, up 3 percent year-on-year.
Consolidated core income reached P6.1 billion in the three-month period, up 14 percent from a year ago.
