ASIAN TRANSMISSION CORP v. CA

G.R .144664, MARCH 15 2004, CARPIO-MORALES, J

(Labor Standards: Proper Construction and Interpretation of Labor laws)

FACTS: 

DOLE issued an Explanatory bulletin entitling workers to be paid 200% of the bASIC pay on April 9, 1998, whether unworked, as the date falls on 2 holidays Maundy Thursday and araw ng kagitingan, Petitioner, notwithstanding the Explanatory bulletin paid their workers only 100% of their basic pay. They assailed the constitutionality of the Explanatory bulletin.

RULING:

“Holiday pay is a statutory benefit demandable under the law. Since a worker is entitled to the enjoyment of ten paid regular holidays, the fact that two holidays fall on the same date should not operate to reduce to nine the ten holiday pay benefits a worker is entitled to receive.

It is elementary, under the rules of statutory construction, that when the language of the law is clear and unequivocal, the law must be taken to mean exactly what it says. In the case at bar, there is nothing in the law which provides or indicates that the entitlement to ten days of holiday pay shall be reduced to nine when two holidays fall on the same day.”