Magsalin v. National Organization of Working Men Digest

Magsalin v. National Organization of Working Men

Facts:

1. The private respondents worked as sales route helpers for the petitioner (Coca Cola) for 5 months and thereafter they were hired on a daily basis. According to the petitioner, the respondents were merely hired as substitutes for regular helpers when the latter were unavailable or due to shortage of manpower/high volume of work. These workers would then wait every morning outside the gates and if hired, they would be paid their wages at the end of the day.

2. The respondents asked the petitioner to make them regular but the latter refused. Hence, 23 of these temporary workers filed a case for illegal dismissal.

Issue: W/N the respondents' work is deemed necessary and desirable in the usual business or trade of the petitioner

RULING: Yes. The repeated hiring of the respondent workers and continuing need of their daily services clearly attest to the necessity or desirability of their services in the regular conduct of the business/trade of petitioner.

In determining whether employment is regular or not, the applicable test is the reasonable connection between a particular activity performed in relation to the usual business or trade of the employer. The nature of work must be viewed from the perspective of the business in its entirety and not confined scope.