SC declares GMA talents in 2014 labor case are regular employees
The Supreme Court has affirmed in a landmark ruling that the 94 workers of GMA Network who filed a labor case against the media giant in 2014 are regular employees.
The SC Third Division upheld the Court of Appeals' 2019 decision that the members of the Talents Association of GMA (TAG) were not independent contractors in a resolution made public on Jan. 24.
"Talents are regular employees, deserving of security and statutory benefits. We believe that since the beginning, and now there is jurisprudence to protect the next generation of media workers in the Philippines," TAG said in a statement.
In the jurisprudence, the high court found that GMA Network had employer-employee relationships with the petitioners, as it filtered candidates, paid talent fees twice a month, and had the power to discipline and dismiss the talents.
"Plain as day, there exists an employer-employee relationship between GMA and respondents," the SC stated.
TAG took note of this in a statement it released announcing the decision.
"Plain as day, we—the production assistants, researchers, writers, producers, artists, coordinators, and cameramen behind some of your favorite GMA news and public affairs programs—were employees entitled to protection from the very beginning," the group said.
In the same decision, the SC ruled that the 50 TAG members who were illegally dismissed amid the case would be awarded separation pay and backwages.
The network argued that 15 of the talents were dismissed over unauthorized absences, but it failed to prove that the respondents were absent for one to two schedules.
Meanwhile, the SC said that there were no written notices of renewal given to the 35 respondents, whose contracts expired, according to the network.
"There being no written notice, the 35 respondents cannot be faulted for believing that no offer to renew was coming. Elsewise stated, the 35 respondents had nothing to decline."
'11 years in the making'
In June 2014, over 100 TAG members filed a regularization complaint against GMA Network before the National Labor Relations Commission. The labor arbiter declared them "undoubtedly employees of GMA in June 2015. The media network appealed this decision to the CA, which would later be junked. It went to the SC afterward in 2020 after the appellate court dismissed its motion for reconsideration in 2019.
TAG claimed the victory, which it described as 11 years in the making.
"[Our] members have emotionally and mentally suffered from having to take to court what we considered our home network," it said through Buhay Media. "This should not have taken 11 years. This should not have happened at all."
"It is time for media companies, especially broadcast networks, to scrap its longtime practice of contractualization through a talent system. It is time to protect Filipino media workers."
Several journalists and media practitioners also celebrated the decision.
Rappler senior investigative reporter Lian Buan, who worked at GMA, described the labor case as her "best achievement."
"After 11 years, the labor case that everyone told me not to file, that many people said would ruin my career, has finally been decided by the Supreme Court. And we won," she wrote in a Facebook post.
"I can now look back at the past 15 years and call this my best achievement. I stood up for the right cause, helped amplify the voice of the anti-contractualization movement, and left a lasting legacy to all future media workers."
Apple Gamboa, a lifestyle editor for an online magazine, also shared an emotional message following the ruling.
"Hindi sapat ang mga salita para ipaliwanag ang lahat ng pinagdaanan namin, pero naniniwala kami na ang paglaban para sa hustisya ay may saysay, lalo na kung alam mong iyon ang tama," she said.
Meanwhile, University of the Philippines lecturer Ely Del Rosario, who left the media giant in 2020, highlighted how the decision affects the industry. "May proteksyon ang batas. May hangganan ang pang-aabuso. At may lakas ang kolektibong paninindigan," he wrote.
GMA Network has yet to release a statement, as of writing.