Facts:
Mabao was a a former teacher at BWS. She started working on June 7, 2007 as a grade school teacher. She was granted regular status in 2010.
Sometime in September 2016, Mabao approached the head of the administrative team and Deloso, the grade school principal of BWS, to discuss the matter of her pregnancy which was two months along the way. The father of Mabao’s baby was her boyfriend. In order to avoid any unpleasant remarks from the faculty and staff of BWS, Mabaoapproached them even before her bump became evident.
The following day, Mabao was summoned to the conference room of BWS where Deloso verbalysuspended Mabao, telling her not to report to her classes starting the next day until she could present documents showing that she was already married to her boyfriend.
Thereafter, she was summoned to the office of the head of the administrative team and was asked to receive a Disciplinary Form and a letter stating that she was indefinitely suspended without pay.
Ruling of the Labor Arbiter
The Labor Arbiter held that Mabao was constructively dismissed.
Ruling of the NLRC
The NLRC found that Mabao’s suspension is not tantamount to constructive dismissal.
Ruling of the Court of Appeals
The Court of Appeals affirmed the NLRC’s ruling that there was no constructive dismissal, but held that Mabao was illegally suspended.
Issue
Was Mabao illegally suspended?
Did Mabao abandon her employment?
Supreme Court’s Ruling
Mabao was illegally suspended.
In the eyes of the law, there is a standard of morality that binds all those who come before it, which is public and secular, not religious. It is important to make this distinction as the Court’s jurisdiction extends only to public and secular morality.
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.
Sexual intercourse between two consenting adults who have no legal impediment to marry, lie respondent and her boyfriend, is not deemed immoral. No law proscribes such, and said conduct does not contravene any fundamental state policy enshrined in the Constitution.
Mabao’s suspension on the ground of engaging in premarital sexual relations resulting in pregnancy out of wedlock is therefore illegal.
Mabao abandoned her employment.
To constitute abandonment, the employer must prove that: (1) the employee failed to report for work or must have been absent without valid or justifiable reason; and (2) there is a clear intention on the part of the employee to sever the employer-employee relationship by some overt act.
BWS gave respondent three return to work notices. Despite receipt and knowledge of the return to work notices, respondent failed to return to work.
Aside from failing to return to work despite due notice, Mabao clearly manifested her desire to end her employment in her letter where she unequivocally stated that she “could no longer go back to work for the school”. The letter is respondent’s overt act manifesting her clear intention to sever her employment with petitioners.
