AFTER MORE than a decade of fighting for their labor rights, the Talents Association of GMA (TAG) has received a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court made public on Saturday, 24 January: the Supreme Court Third Division has affirmed the Court of Appeals decision that recognizes 94 talent workers of GMA Network as regular employees.
It also ordered that 50 employees who were illegally dismissed be entitled to reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and other privileges.
From the moment their compensation was withheld until their actual reinstatement, they must get their full back earnings, allowance, and other benefits.
If reinstatement is not feasible, the Supreme Court ordered separation pay equal to one month's salary for each year of service, together with the computation of monetary awards and six percent legal interest annually.
While GMA can still file a motion for reconsideration, the Supreme Court invalidated its claim that there was no employer-employee relationship, as the network still had control over both the results and the manner of work.
History of the Struggle
The dispute started on 14 April 2014, when the talents were ordered by GMA to issue invoices for their talent fees as per the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s policy for independent contractors.
TAG was formed to negotiate terms, as it was an undue burden on talents that perform regular work for the media giant. They rendered years of service without regular employee benefits and security of tenure, which included Social Security System (SSS), Pag-IBIG, and PhilHealth coverage as well.
The case was raised to the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), which declared in 2015 that the workers were regular employees. The Court of Appeals supported this judgement, thus, the case was brought by GMA to the Supreme Court.
As read in the statement by TAG, "This is 11 years in the making, during which our members have emotionally and mentally suffered from having to take to court what we considered our home network. It was not an easy decision to file the very first case in 2014, and it has not been easy since.”
Plain as Day
TAG continues to call for the protection of the Filipino press and the scrapping of the long-standing practice of contractualization through a talent system by media firms, particularly broadcast networks.
"Talents are regular employees, deserving of security and statutory benefits. We believed that since the beginning, and now there is jurisprudence to protect the next generation of media workers in the Philippines,” they said.
The group reflected on how the departure of their friends heavily impacted livelihoods and careers when all they ever wanted was to share stories with the people. They also remembered James Arce, or ‘Mang James,’ who passed away before knowing of the victory.
TAG added, “Plain as day, we—the production assistants, researchers, writers, producers, artists, coordinators, and cameramen behind some of your most favorite GMA news and public affairs programs—were employees entitled to protection from the very beginning.”
