WHAT began as a simple labor case about an employee’s suspension actually ended up with the highest court of the land assailing a private school’s moral parameters.
Going further, this recent case had the Supreme Court affirming that individuals cannot be compelled to conform to any specific religious agenda because it is incompatible with constitutional principles.
The high tribunal issued an 18-page decision on G.R. No. 252124 in which its First Division upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeals on illegal suspension, emphasizing that consensual sexual relations between unmarried adults are not considered immoral.
The SC has ordered a school in Bohol province to pay the back wages and other benefits of a teacher who was suspended for getting pregnant out of wedlock.
‘This sends the message that administrative rules involving labor relations should be free from religious bias.’
The decision, promulgated on July 24 and penned by Associate Justice Ricardo Jose, emphasized that no law prohibits such a conduct, nor does it conflict with any fundamental state policies outlined in the Constitution.
The Supreme Court effectively denied the petition for review on certiorari filed by Bohol Wisdom School, its chairman of the board Simplicio Yap Jr., and administrative team head Raul Deloso, who were held liable for the illegal suspension of a female teacher.
A walk-through of what happened before. The complainant started teaching at Bohol Wisdom School, a Christian institution, on June 7, 2007. She taught language, physical education, arts, mother tongue and writing.
On Sept. 21, 2016, she informed the grade school principal and administrator Raul Deloso that she was two months pregnant. The following day, Deloso said, she was suspended and will remain so until she married the father of her child. Five days later, the teach received a written notice that she was indefinitely suspended without pay on the ground of immorality.
She subsequently filed a complaint for illegal suspension. While the teacher did get married, she declined to return to work and filed for separation pay. The labor arbiter ruled that she was constructively dismissed, but the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) reversed this decision. While the appellate court ruled out constructive dismissal, it found her suspension illegal.
The CA ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court, which said that the teacher’s premarital sexual relations and pregnancy were “not disgraceful or immoral within the contemplation of the law.”
The high court agreed with the appellate court’s finding that “on a secular level, premarital sex is not immoral per se. (The teacher) did not have sexual relations with a married man; neither was she married at the time.”
The Supreme Court justices should be praised for dispensing justice on this case. This sends the message that administrative rules involving labor relations should be free from religious bias. They ruled that basing public policies and moral standards on religious beliefs effectively stifle our freedoms which are enshrined in the Constitution.
