CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF LAW
LABOR STANDARDS
Long Quiz on Migrant Workers
Atty. Norman Clarence Lasam

Instructions: Answer what is asked for, citing your factual AND legal bases.

1. May a non-Filipino hold a position in a local manning agency here in the Philippines?
Why or why not? (10 points)

2. Divina, overseas Filipino worker has been engaged by a local agency, Sunance, to work
as househelper in Saudi for 6 months. Upon arrival, the foreign employer, Abdula, had
said that her contract was for 2 years. She then filed monetary claims and illegal
recruitment to both Sunance and Abdula. Sunance denied having knowledge and it
never consented to the 2-year contract of Abdula. There was no substantial proof that
Sunance had knowledge of such contract swapping. But Divina alleged that based on
imputed knowledge, Sunance was still liable. Is Divina correct? (10 points)

3. Melissa Chua represented to four applicants that she could send them to Taiwan as
factory workers upon the submission of the required documents and placement fees.
Chua is not licensed by the POEA to recruit workers for overseas employment. The 4
applicants then filed a case for illegal recruitment against Chua alleging that they were
never deployed. Chua, to absolve herself said that she was merely a “cashier” of the
agency and that she never remitted the placement fees or used it as her own. Can
Chua’s defense prosper? (10 points)

4. Celia, an OFW that Moonshine Agency recruited and deployed, died in Syria, her place
of work. Her death was not work-related, it appearing that she had been murdered.
Insisting that she committed suicide, the employer and the agency took no action to
ascertain the cause of death and treated the matter as a “closed case.” The worker's
family sued both the employer and the agency for moral and exemplary damages. May
such damages be awarded? (10 points)

5. What is the effect of the case of Sameer which was decided later than the case of
Sereno regarding the constitutionality of Section 7 of RA 10022? Explain. (10 points)

6. Give the elements of the crime of illegal recruitment. (10 points)

7. Differentiate Illegal Recruitment committed by a syndicate and Illegal Recruitment by

large scale. (10 points)

8. Philworld, a POEA-licensed agency, recruited and deployed Mike with its principal, Delta
Construction Company in Dubai for a 2-year project job. After he had worked for a year,
 Delta and Philworld terminated for unknown reason their agency agreement. Delta
stopped paying Mike's salary. When Mike returned to the Philippines, he sued both
Philworld and Delta for unpaid salary and damages. May Philworld, the agency, be held
liable? (10 points)

9. What cases will the POEA have exclusive jurisdiction on? (10 points)

10. An illegal recruiter was charged and convicted of Estafa by abuse of confidence for
duping and fraudulently promise six aspiring overseas Filipino workers bound for Japan.
The OFW’s then filed an Illegal Recruitment case against the same illegal recruiter for
the same set of facts. The illegal recruiter asked for the dismissal of the Illegal
Recruitment case as violative to his right against double jeopardy. Rule on the Motion to
Dismiss. (10 points)

CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF LAW
LABOR STANDARDS
FIRST LONG EXAM
30 MAY 2017

Atty. Norman Clarence Lasam

Report II & III Problems and Questions:

Instructions: Answer what is asked for, citing your factual AND legal bases.
1. Discuss the rules on payment of Overtime Pay for seafarers as ruled on by the Supreme
Court in various cases. (10points)

2. What is wage distortion? What are the elements to consider a wage increase an actual
wage distortion? (10points)

3. Explain the difference between salary and wages, and its implications. (10points)

4. Modified true or false: A waiver of the right to claim overtime pay is contrary to law.
(10points)

5. Under the Labor Code, its provisions on working conditions, including the eight-hour
work day rule, do not apply to domestic helpers. Does it follow from this that a domestic
helper's workday is not limited by law? (10 points)

6. Modified true or false: Under the Labor Code on Working Conditions and Rest Periods, a
person hired by a high company official but paid for by the company to clean and
maintain his staff house is regarded as a person rendering personal service to another.
(10 points)

7. The meal time (lunch break) for the dining crew in Glorious Restaurant is either from 10
a.m. to 11 a.m. or from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., with pay. But the management wants to
change the mealtime to 11: a.m. to 12 noon or 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., without pay.
Will the change be legal? Why or why not? (10 points)

8. When an employee works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a regular daily wage of PhP1000 on
a legal holiday falling on his rest day, how much does he get on that day’s work? (10
points)

9. In computing for 13th month pay, Balagtas Company used as basis both the employee’s
regular base pay and the cash value of his unused vacation and sick leaves. After two
and a half years, it announced that it had made a mistake and was discontinuing such
practice. Is the management action legally justified? (10 points)

10. Differentiate “supplements” from “facilities”. (10 points)

-end-
 CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF LAW
LABOR STANDARDS
FIRST LONG EXAM
30 MAY 2017

Atty. Norman Clarence Lasam

Report IV Problems and Questions:

Instructions: Answer what is asked for, citing your factual AND legal bases.

1. Discuss the doctrine in Bombo Radyo Philippines, Inc. v. Secretary of Labor regarding
the jurisdiction of DOLE vis-à-vis the jurisdiction of the Labor Arbiter in dealing with
 labor cases with money claims, reinstatement, or even the presence or absence of
employer-employee relationship. (20points)

2. James entered into a written agreement with Cagayan State University to work for
the latter in exchange for the privilege of studying in said institution. James’ work
was confined to keeping clean the lavatory facilities of the school.

One school day, James got into a fistfight with a classmate, Dennis, as a result of
which the latter sustained a fractured arm.

Dennis filed a civil case for damages against James, impleading Cagayan State
University due to the latter’s alleged liability of as an employer of James.

Under the circumstances, could Cagayan State University be held liable by Dennis as
an employer of James? (10 points)

3. Reach-All, a marketing firm with operating capital of P100,000, supplied sales

persons to pharmaceutical companies to promote their products in hospitals and
doctors' offices. Reach-All trained these sales persons in the art of selling but it is the
client companies that taught them the pharmacological qualities of their products.
Reach-All’s roving supervisors monitored, assessed, and supervised their work
performance. Reach-All directly paid their salaries out of contractor's fees it
received. Under the circumstances, can the sales persons demand that they be
absorbed as employees of the pharmaceutical firms? (10 points)

4. Choose the best answer: A handicapped worker may be hired as apprentice or

learner, provided:

(A) he waives any claim to legal minimum wage.

(B) his work is limited to apprenticeable job suitable to a handicapped worker.

(C) he does not impede job performance in the operation for which he is hired.

(D) he does not demand regular status as an employee. (5 points)

5. Atty. Renan, a CPA-lawyer and Managing Partner of an accounting firm, conducted

the orientation seminar for newly-hired employees of the firm, among them, Miss
Maganda. After the seminar, Renan requested Maganda to stay, purportedly to
discuss some work assignment. Left alone in the training room, Renan asked
Maganda to go out with him for dinner and ballroom dancing. Thereafter, he
persuaded her to accompany him to the mountain highway in Antipolo for sight-
seeing. During all these, Renan told Maganda that most, if not all, of the lady
supervisors in the firm are now in very productive and lucrative posts, because of his
favorable endorsement.

Did Renan commit acts of sexual harassment in a work- related or employment

environment? Reasons. (10 points)

6. Differentiate learners from apprentices. (10points)

7. Modified True or False: Employment of children below fifteen (15) years of age in
any public or private establishment is absolutely prohibited. (5points)

8. Give the special rules on Women Workers provided for the the Labor Code. Are
these provisions suggestive of inequality and gives special treatment to women as
against that of men? Is this not an infringement of equal protection clause of the
Constitution? (10 points)

9. May a fixed term employee ever be a regular employee? Explain. (10 points)