Sentosa ordered to pay nurses $186,372

MANILA, Philippines — The National Labor Relations Committee has overturned the decision of the executive labor arbiter and ordered Sentosa enterprises to pay the nurses actual damages of $186,372 (about P8.7 million) after finding that the employer “constructively discharged” the nurses, it was learned Tuesday.

The decision, dated September 25 this year, was received by the so-called Sentosa 27++ October 8.

The NLRC decision found that the nurses’ complaints of their “working conditions, difficult working relationship with administration, delayed/underpayment payment of salaries and other benefits” went unheeded, “even when complainants wrote respondents that they intend to quit their jobs.”

“The delayed salaries and diminution in pay, coupled with the uncaring and indifferent attitude on the part of the respondents, brought about feelings of oppression and created an adverse working environment, making it unacceptable for the employees to continue
working for respondents.”

The three commissioners of NLRC’s First Division unanimously found that the resignation of the nurses was in reality “not a choice, but a situation created by respondents, thus their severance from employment amounted to constructive dismissal.”

“We lend credence to complainants’ assertion that there was substantial breach in their employment contracts”, further ruled the NLRC.

But the nurses’ advocate in the United States Rico Foz said justice has not been served by this decision.

“The meat of the nurses’ complaints—the substantive issues of these cases—was not properly addressed by the NLRC to the satisfaction of the nurses,” said Foz, executive vice president of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (Nafcon) and one of the lead conveners of the US-based Justice for Sentosa 27++ Campaign.

In the United States, the claims and counterclaims of breach of contract filed against each side by the Sentosa Enterprise and by the nurses remain pending before Justice Bucaria of the New York Supreme Court in Nassau County. Trial is expected to commence sometime early next year. –Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net