THE Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that premarital sexual relations leading to pregnancy are not immoral and cannot be used by an employer to justify the suspension or dismissal of an employee from work.
This as the First Division of the High Court, through Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario, affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) which ruled that the indefinite suspension slapped by the Bohol Wisdom School (BWS) against Miraflor Mabao in 2016 was illegal.
Mabao, a grade school teacher at BWS, a Christian school, was suspended for getting pregnant outside marriage.
She started teaching ay BWS in 2007 and become a regular employee in 2010.
Records of the case showed that when she was two months pregnant, school principal Raul Deloso verbally suspended her, telling her that she would remain suspended until she married the father of the child she was carrying.
Five days later, Mabao received a written notice from the school stating that she was suspended indefinitely without pay due to immorality until she married her boyfriend.
This prompted Mabao to file a complaint for illegal suspension against the school before the labor arbiter, which held that she was constructively dismissed.
The National Labor Relations Commission disagreed with the labor arbiter and reversed the decision.
When the case went to the appellate court, it ruled there was no constructive dismissal and Mabao’s suspension was illegal.
The SC agreed with the CA ruling.
In a ruling promulgated on July 23 this year, the high court affirmed the CA’s finding of illegal suspension and held that sexual relations between two unmarried, consenting adults are not immoral.
“In this case, respondent was suspended for engaging in premarital sexual relations, resulting in being pregnant out of wedlock. The Court has previously ruled in similar cases that premarital sexual relations resulting in pregnancy out of wedlock cannot be considered disgraceful or immoral when viewed against the prevailing norms of conduct,” the Sc said.
The SC said that since Mabao’s pregnancy cannot be considered immoral, it was not a valid ground for her suspension.
It likewise questioned the failure of the school to issue a notice to Mabao requiring her to explain why no administrative sanction should be imposed against her before she was suspended from work, which it said is a violation of her right to due process.
“Petitioners already decided Respondent’s disciplinary sanction before hearing her side. Petitioners cannot therefore claim substantial compliance with procedural due process,” the High Court said.
With this, the SC ordered BWS to pay Mabao backwages and benefits due her during the period she was suspended.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and Associate Justices Ramon Paul Hernando, Rodil Zalameda and Jose Midas Marquez concurred with the decision.
