156 SCRA 27 – Labor Law – Labor Standards – Working Conditions and Rest Periods – Holiday Pay
The National Alliance of Teachers sued Jose Rizal College for alleged nonpayment of unworked holidays from 1975 to 1977. The members of the Alliance concerned are faculty members who are paid on the basis of student contract hour.
ISSUE: Whether or not the school faculty are entitled to unworked holiday pay.
HELD: As far as unworked regular holidays are concerned, the teachers are not entitled to holiday pay.
Regular holidays specified as such by law are known to both school and faculty members as no class days; certainly the latter do not expect payment for said unworked days, and this was clearly in their minds when they entered into the teaching contracts.
On the other hand, the teachers are entitled to be paid for unworked special holidays. Otherwise stated, the faculty member, although forced to take a rest, does not earn what he should earn on that day. Be it noted that when a special public holiday is declared, the faculty member paid by the hour is deprived of expected income, and it does not matter that the school calendar is extended in view of the days or hours lost, for their income that could be earned from other sources is lost during the extended days. Similarly, when classes are called off or shortened on account of typhoons, floods, rallies, and the like, these faculty members must likewise be paid, whether or not extensions are ordered.
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