PERPETUALHELPCREDITCOOPERATIVE,INC. (PHCCI)V.

FABURADA

October 8, 2001

By: Aurea I. Gruyal

FACTS:


1
Private respondents Faburada et. al. fileda complaint

against PHCCI for illegal dismissal, premium pay, separation pay, wage differential, moral
damages and attorneys fees.


2
PHCCI filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that noemployeremployee relationship exists since privaterespondents are all members and coowners of thecooperative. Also, private respondents have not exhausted the remedies
provided in the coop by laws.

PHCCIalsofiledasupplementalmotiontodismiss

alledging that RA 6939, the Cooperative Development Authority Law, requires conciliation or
mediation within the cooperative before a resort to judicial proceeding.

3.The Labor Arbiter ruled in favor of the private respondents, holding that the case is impressed
with employer-employee relationship andthatthelawson cooperatives is subservient to the Labor
Code.The NLRC affirmed.



ISSUE: WON there is an employer-employee relationship between the parties and WON private
respondents were regular employees

HELD:YES.

RATIO:

Elementsindeterminingexistenceofemployer-employee relationship:

1) Selectionandengagement oftheworker orthe power to hire

2) Thepower todismiss

3) Payment of wages by whatevermeans

4) Power to control the workers conductThe above elements are present here.PHCCI through its
Manager Mr.EdilbertoLantaca, Jr.hiredrespondentsas

Computer programmer and clerks. They worked regular working hours, were assigned specific
duties,werepaid regular wages, and made to accomplish regular time records, and worked under
the supervision of the manager.

Art.280,LaborCodecomprehends3kindsofemployees:

1)REGULAR EMPLOYEES or those whose work is necessary or desirable to the usual business
ofthe employer

2)PROJECTEMPLOYEESorthosewhoseemploymenthasbeenfixedforaspecificprojectorunde
rtakingthecompletionortermination of which has been determined at the time of the engagement
of the employee or where the work or services to be performed is seasonal in nature and the
employment is for the duration of the season

3)CASUAL EMPLOYEES or those who are neither regular nor project employees

There are 2 separate instances whereby it can be determined that an employment is regular:

1)If the particular activity performed by the employee is necessary or desirable in the usual business
or trade of the employer

2)If the employee has been performing thejob for at least a year

Private respondents were rendering services necessary to the day-to-day operations of
PHCCI.Thisalonequalifiedthemasregularemployees. Moreover, all of them except one worked
with PHCCI for more than 1 year.

That Faburada worked only on a part-time basis does not mean that he is not a regular
employee .Regularity of employment is not determined by the number of hours one works but by
the nature and length of time one has been in that particular job.