The employer in this case was defending against a claim for unpaid wages. It argued that the wages of the employees have been paid, but also mentioned that the daily time records of the said employees got lost because they were stolen.
The Supreme Court, however, saw this as a lame excuse. Even if this angle was set aside, the Court said that “it would nonetheless be difficult if not impossible to validate and reconcile (the employer’s) documentary evidence and unilateral claims of payment, if the official payroll and daily time records are not taken into account.” It thus ruled in favor of the employees.
Thoughts:
There was one part of the decision that I also found significant. It was that part where the Court stated:
“What ‘daily time records’ petitioners refer to in this Petition pertain to the supposed attendance record of several of the respondents, which however do not contain the latter’s respective signatures and those of their superiors. They appear to be incomplete as well; indeed, some are barely readable. They can hardly be considered proof sufficient enough for this Court to consider.”
If you’re an employer, and if you want to learn from this case, then your time record should at least have the following, among others:
- signatures – not only of the employees, but also of their superiors;
- complete information – the dates, times, number of hours, and other pieces of information that show an employee’s attendance in the office for work; and
- readability – in order for anyone to make sense of the information contained therein.
Further reading:
- Rose Hana Angeles, etc., et al. v. Ferdinand M.
Bucad , et al. G.R. No. 196249. July 21, 2014.
