SC stops award of P60-M compensation to Aussie

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme court has restrained the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) from executing a labor arbiter’s order that awarded P60 million in compensation to a foreigner who had no alien employment visa to work legally in the Philippines.

In an en banc resolution dated Sept. 4, 2012, the high court stopped the implementation of the Sept. 30, 2004 order issued by labor arbiter Salimathar Nambi in favor of Australian Andrew James McBurnie.

2009 ruling

In an earlier decision dated Sept. 18, 2009, the court’s third division, then chaired by now retired Justice Consuelo Ynares Santiago, affirmed the labor arbiter’s order directing businessman Eulalio Ganzon, EGI Managers Inc. and E. Ganzon Inc. to pay P60 million to McBurnie.

A motion filed by Ganzon led to the third division referring the case to the court en banc.

In absentia

In his motion, Ganzon argued that on Nov. 17, 2009, the NLRC reversed the ruling of Nambi that granted P60 million in compensation to McBurnie but Nambi’s decision continued to hold sway.

In a statement, Ganzon said while McBurnie purportedly personally filed his complaint at the NLRC in 2002, Bureau of Immigration records showed that the foreigner “had left the country for good three years before the complaint was filed.”

“At the time of the filing (of the complaint), McBurnie was abroad, thus the complaint was filed in absentia and another person pretending to be McBurnie was sworn in by the NLRC officer in Quezon City” to attest to the complaint, he said.

McBurnie “failed to attend any of the 14 hearings intended for mediation.”

Not employee

Ganzon said the NLRC requires the presence of the complainant in hearings and that under its rules, “two missed hearings are equal to a dismissal” of the complaint.

“McBurnie was supposed to be an investor, not an employee. He never worked for me or in any of my companies. He requested to use EGI Managers Inc. to start a hotel business venture. As presented, I noted a condition of availability of funds before we could start our contract,” said Ganzon.

“McBurnie left the country in November 1999, a month and a half after the alleged start of contract in September 1999, while the complaint (at the NLRC) was filed in October 2002, when the labor claim would have prescribed,” he added.

Ganzon also said: “McBurnie has never been issued a working permit or an alien employment permit.”