Contsruction v. National Labor Relations Commission

CHICO-NAZARIO, J.:

Before this Court is the Petition for Review on Certiorari 1 2 dated 22 March 2005 and the Resolution3 dated 5 October 2005 of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. SP No. 59329. The appellate court, in its assailed Decision and Resolution, affirmed the Resolution dated 10 September 1999 of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) in NLRC NCR CA No. 020826-99 dismissing the petitioners' appeal for failure to perfect the same within the reglementary period. The factual and procedural backdrop of the instant case are as follows: Sometime in July 1991, private respondent Willy C. Olaguer (Olaguer) was employed by Colby Construction as a construction foreman with the salary of ₱150.00, plus a living allowance of ₱100.00 per day.

Olaguer was tasked to oversee the various construction projects of the company.4 Eventually, Olaguer ventured into a sub-contracting business with Colby Construction wherein he submitted his bid to build a part of the company's construction project for a cost. Such sub-contracting business was carried out by Olaguer simultaneous with his job as a construction foreman.5 In 1996, Olaguer was awarded the CHB Layering and Plastering Project which costs ₱550,731.48. As a guarantee for the completion of the project, Olaguer was required to post a performance bond in the amount equivalent to 10% of the project cost or the sum of ₱55,073.14.

After the project was completed, Colby Construction paid Olaguer the full amount of the project cost but refused to return the performance bond. When Olaguer persisted in demanding the return of the performance bond, Colby Construction, instead of complying with his demand, summarily dismissed Olaguer from his job as a construction foreman.6 Consequently, Olaguer filed a complaint for illegal dismissal against petitioners Colby Construction and/or Lo before the Labor Arbiter alleging that he was summarily dismissed from his work as a construction foreman without justifiable cause. He likewise claimed that Colby Construction refused to return the sum of his performance bond even after the project he undertook as a sub-contractor was faithfully completed.

Olaguer thus prayed for reinstatement and backwages, and payment of ₱55,073.14, the sum of the unreturned performance bond.7 For failure of petitioners to file their Position Paper, the Labor Arbiter, in a Decision8 dated 22 July 1999, ruled in favor of Olaguer and declared that the latter was illegally dismissed from employment. The Labor Arbiter, however, refused to dispose of the issue of whether or not Olaguer was entitled to the sum of the purported performance bond, asserting that such matter properly rested within the jurisdiction of the regular courts. The dispositive portion of the Labor Arbiter's Decision reads:

WHEREFORE, premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered, ordering [petitioners] to reinstate [Olaguer] to his former or equivalent position without loss of seniority rights, and to pay him full backwages from date of dismissal to actual reinstatement, hereunder computed as follows: I. FULL BACKWAGES: Backwages: From March 1996 to July 22, 1999 = 3 yrs. 4 mos. & 22 days or 40.73 mos. ₱250.00 x 40.73 = ₱264,745.00 13th Month Pay: From March to Dec. 31, 1996 = 9 mos. & 31 days or 10 mos. ₱250.00 x 26 x 10