SC junks appeal by former employees of Marcopper

SC junks appeal by former employees of Marcopper

The Supreme Court junked an appeal of more than 600 former employees of Marcopper Mining Corp. (Marcopper) to collect some P49 million in back wages and separation pay.

The mining firm was forced to cease operations in the province of Marinduque in 1996 following an environmental disaster there.

The court’s second division, in a 16-page decision written by Associate Justice Arturo Brion, upheld the Court of Appeals ruling issued in October 2004 turning down the petition filed by the members of the National Mines and Allied Workers Union (NAMAWU) seeking to collect wages, separation pay, damages due them owing to the six-month indefinite suspension of Marcopper’s operations beginning April 12, 1996.

The court said that the 615 employees were deemed terminated after they failed to return for work, which they left to stage an illegal strike. Only the claims of three employees, who did not participate in the strike, were recognized by the High Court.

In a resolution dated November 11, 2006, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) declared the strike illegal. The Supreme Court has affirmed with finality on July 12, 2000 the ruling of the commission.

The justices rejected the contention of the employees that the illegal strike case between them and Marcopper is a separate and distinct case, not connected with the April 10, 1996 complaint they filed with the commission in connection with the environmental incident case.

“Both cases refer to termination of employment and its consequences. In fact, the payment of separation pay that NAMAWU seeks in the present case was considered by the NLRC in its decision in the illegal strike case, although the award was stricken out by the CA [Court of Appeals] when the illegal strike case was brought to it for review,” according to the ruling.

Although the commission had not yet ruled on the illegal strike case when the environmental incident complaint was filed, the labor arbiter’s ruling on the employees’ complaint came long after both the commission and the appellate court had ruled on the illegal strike.

The Supreme Court noted that the motion for reconsideration of its November 11, 1996 decision in the illegal strike case was issued on June 11, 1997, while the Court of Appeals issued its decision on the same case on May 28, 1999.

The labor arbiter issued his decision on the present environmental incident case only on March 14, 2000.

On April 1, 1996, the Pollution Adjudication Board of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources suspended Marcopper’s operations.

Also, the Environment department ordered on June 21, 1996 the cancellation of Marcopper’s environmental compliance certificate, or ECC, without which the firm could not continue mining. - William B. Depasupil, Manila Times