Topics:
Constructive Dismissal, Abandonment, AWOL
MARIO DIMAGAN V. DACWORKS UNITED INC.
[G.R. No. 191053, November 28, 2011]
Facts:
Dimagan, a stockholder of respondent company started working as an OIC
therein. After sometime, he was relegated from the position of OIC to
supervisor and subsequently to an ordinary technician. When he openly voiced
out his concern, he was told not to report for work anymore. Dimagan then filed
the complaint for illegal dismissal.
On the other hand, denying such allegation, the company asserted that
Dimagan went on AWOL, violating company policy.
The Labor Arbiter and NLRC found there was illegal dismissal. CA however
found there was neither an illegal nor constructive dismissal.
ISSUE:
1) Was there constructive dismissal of petitioner?
2) Was there abandonment of employment by failing to report for work or
having gone AWOL?
HELD:
1) Yes. The reduction in petitioner's responsibilities and duties,
particularly from supervisor to ordinary technician, constituted a demotion in
rank tantamount to constructive dismissal.
Constructive
dismissal is defined as a quitting because continued employment is rendered
impossible, unreasonable or unlikely; when there is a demotion in rank or a
diminution of pay. The test of constructive dismissal is whether a reasonable
person in the employee's position would have felt compelled to give up his
position under the circumstances. It is an act amounting to dismissal but is
made to appear as if it were not. Constructive dismissal is therefore a
dismissal in disguise.
2)
None.
Petitioner’s failure to report for work was caused by the unwarranted demotion
in rank that was imposed upon him by respondents, not by any intention to sever
employment ties with them. And his filing of the instant complaint for illegal
dismissal indubitably negates the allegation of abandonment.
For abandonment to exist, the operative act is still the employees’
ultimate act of putting an end to his employment. Thus, mere absence or failure
to report for work is not tantamount to abandonment of work.
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