Members of Talents Association of GMA Network (TAG) welcomed the Court of Appeals (CA) Special 14th Division decision to uphold the earlier decisions of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) that declared them as regular employees of media giant GMA Network, Inc (GMA).
“Our group has been through a lot after five years, including in June 2015 when we staged a rally in front of GMA’s premises to call for the end of contractualization across the industries. As a consequence, some of our members were fired, and some were ridiculed or “biting the hand that feeds them”,” said TAG in their statement.
In July 2015, GMA sacked 11 members of TAG in a new round of layoffs, only a month after a favorable ruling by the NLRC. The terminated members of TAG came from GMA’s award-winning shows Imbestigador and Reporter’s Notebook, including TAG President Christian Cabaluna.
The CA decision dismissing GMA’s Petition for Certiorari was promulgated on February 20, 2019. TAG said they are aware this is not the end of their struggle.
“We are aware that this is not the end. GMA has a recourse to file a motion for reconsideration and take it all the way to the Supreme Court. They have the vast resources to fight us out in court, but we believe that what we lack in money and connections, we make up for by our best asset — the truth,” said the group.
TAG said they hoped that their battle for regularization would be beneficial to other workers.
“Hopefully along the way, we can set a legal precedent that will give all Filipino workers the treatment and protection we have always deserved,” ended TAG.
TAG filed a regularization complaint against GMA with the NLRC on June 4, 2014. The NLRC found that TAG members are regular employees of GMA and as such are entitled to security of tenure and all benefits and rights as regular employees on June 22 and September 30, 2015 and on January 5, 2016, after GMA appealed the NLRC decision several times before taking the case to the CA.
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