THE Commission on Audit has cleared the Light Rail Transit Authority of (LRTA) of liability in relation to the P119.835 million compensation claim of illegally dismissed workers of Metro Transit Organization Inc. (MTOI).
In a decision released last week, the COA Commission Proper held that the LRTA is a separate and distinct government agency from MTOI hence the employees of the latter cannot be considered as employees of the former.
“The LRTA cannot be made to pay MTOI employees since this money claim involves illegal dismissal, which is an employment-related issue. The employees of MTOI are not employees of LRTA since these two maintain personalities separate and distinct from each other,” the commission declared.
On the other hand, it affirmed the merit of the claimants’ petition for payment of monetary award as against MTOI.
However, since the MTOI was already dissolved many years earlier after it lost the contract to provide operations and technical manpower to LRTA, it is no longer in a position to settle the claim.
“Although this Commission finds merit in the liability of MTOI for the subject claim, it is worth stressing that MTOI is a defunct government agency with no funds to disburse. There are no remaining assets that would be garnished or levied to satisfy or settle petitioners’ claims,” the COA pointed out.
Records showed that rank-and-file employees of MTOI staged an illegal strike on July 25, 2000 following a collective bargaining deadlock with the management.
The strike paralyzed the operations of the LRTA until August 2, 2000, prompting it not to renew any further contracts with MTOI which, in turn, caused the latter to declare a cessation of operations and the termination of its entire workforce.
Rendered jobless, the workers filed a case for illegal dismissal with the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) which they won on September 18, 2006.
The labor arbiter held that LRTA and MTOI were solidarily liable for the unlawful termination and ordered them to reinstate the workers and to pay them full back wages.
Appeals filed by the LRTA and MTOI were denied by the NLRC. In its ruling, it declared that the LRTA was the indirect employer of the petitioners hence liable for the unpaid back wages.
On the advice of the labor arbiter, the claimants filed a petition with the COA to compel MTOI and LRTA to pay up.
However, the LRTA invoked the Supreme Court ruling dated March 24, 2006 in the case of LRTA vs. Perfecto Venus et al. which dismissed a similar case of illegal dismissal.
The SC held that it is the Civil Service Commission, not the NLRC, which has jurisdiction over LRTA.
In the absence of NLRC’s jurisdiction over it, the NLRC argued that it follows that there was no employer-employee relationship between it and the dismissed workers of MTOI.
