Jonathan Frederic De Santos

The Supreme Court building in Manila in this photo taken oon February 5, 2025. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17693033345391769303331810.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">The Supreme Court building in Manila in this photo taken oon February 5, 2025. <em>Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News </em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — Close to a hundred talents of GMA Network who filed a labor case against the network in 2014 are regular employees, according to a division of the Supreme Court.</p><p>The court also ruled that 50 of them were illegally dismissed and are entitled to reinstatement or separation pay as well as back wages to be determined by the National Labor Relations Commission.</p><p>The Talents Association of GMA, members of which led the filing of the labor case that has reached the Supreme Court in its 11-year course, called the decision &quot;jurisprudence to protect the next generation of media workers in the Philippines.&quot;</p><p>The 94 talents are among 142 who originally filed a complaint before the NLRC  to assert that they were regular employees of the network despite being classified as talents.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/02/25/20/court-of-appeals-orders-gma-7-to-reinstate-51-former-talents">Court of Appeals orders GMA-7 to reinstate 51 former talents<br/></a></div><p>In its November 25, 2025 ruling that was made public over the weekend, the Supreme Court’s Third Division said that petitioners led by Christian Cabaluna of TAG were not independent contractors as the network had been arguing.</p><p>The Third Division said that GMA Network had selected and engaged the petitioners, had paid their wages, had the power to dismiss them, and had power over their conduct and how they did their jobs — including barring them from taking on projects with other production outfits.</p><p>“This effectively prevents respondents from having a distinct and independent business from the network,” the court said.</p><p>Because of these four elements, the court said that “plain as day, there exists an employer-employee relationship between GMA and respondents.”</p><p>It also held that the talents — among them producers, researchers, and cameramen —  were regular employees because they “perform activities usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the network,” which is the definition in the Labor Code.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>ILLEGAL DISMISSAL</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The court also ruled that 15 of the talents had been dismissed illegally for not reporting to work in protest of a reduction in the number of programs they could work on and a change to paying them with checks instead of bank deposits, which they said was a form of harassment by the network.</p><p>The court said termination of their contracts for the unauthorized absences was too harsh a penalty based on GMA Networks’ own rules, especially since they had no record of habitual absences.</p><p>Thirty-five others were deemed illegally terminated since GMA Network had not formally offered to renew their contracts, prompting some of them to look for work elsewhere.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/02/26/19/ca-upholds-ruling-declaring-some-gma-network-talents-regular-employees">CA upholds ruling declaring some GMA Network &#x27;talents&#x27; regular employees<br/></a></div><p>“There being no written notice, the 35 respondents cannot be faulted for believing that no offer to renew was coming,” the court said.</p><p>GMA Network said the 35 had declined offers for renewal or had found work elsewhere, but the court said they had &quot;nothing to decline.&quot;</p><p>The case has been remanded to the NLRC, which has been directed to compute what the illegally dismissed workers are owed.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;A GIFT TO THE NEXT GENERATION&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>TAG, in a statement on the Buhay Media Facebook page, acknowledged the decision can still be subject to a motion for reconsideration, &quot;but we are already claiming this victory.&quot;</p><p>It said its members &quot;have emotionally and mentally suffered from having to take to court what we considered our home network&quot; in the years since the labor complaint was filed.</p><p>&quot;It was not an easy decision to file the very first case in 2014, and it has not been easy since. We saw our friends leave one by one, their sudden departures heavily impacting livelihoods and careers, when all we ever wanted was to tell stories for the Filipino people,&quot; TAG also said.</p><p>&quot;This should not have cost us this much to fight. But we are glad we did. This is our gift to the next generation,&quot; it said.</p><p>The group also said it is time for media companies &quot;to scrap [the] longtime practice of contractualization through a talent system&quot; and protect media workers.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/30/labor-groups-hold-manila-protest-vs-corruption-job-contractualization-1236">Labor groups hold Manila protest vs corruption, job contractualization<br/></a></div><p>In a statement, the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights made a similar call for an end to contractualization, saying contractual workers are paid less, are denied benefits and security of tenure, and their right to unionize and collectively bargain.</p><p>&quot;We are glad that the Supreme Court has made this precedent-setting decision that favors workers’ labor rights not only in the media industry but in all industries,&quot; it also said.</p><p>GMA Network has yet to publish a statement on the decision on its corporate website.</p>

<p>The Talents Association of GMA, members of which led the filing of the labor case that has reached the Supreme Court in its 11-year course, called the decision "jurisprudence to protect the next generation of media workers in the Philippines."</p>

The Talents Association of GMA, members of which led the filing of the labor case that has reached the Supreme Court in its 11-year course, called the decision "jurisprudence to protect the next generation of media workers in the Philippines."

SC rules GMA talents in 2014 labor case are regular employees

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SC rules GMA talents in 2014 labor case are regular employees

Jonathan de Santos,

ABS-CBN News

Published January 25, 2026 09:50 AM PHT

Read More:

Supreme Court

Talents Association of GMA

GMA Network

Contractualization

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