PRIL – Overseas Employment Contract – 95

Suzara vs Benipayo (1989)

Facts:
1. Suzara et al entered into employment contracts with Magsaysay lines to work aboard vessels
owned/operated/manned by the latter for a period of 12 calendar months and with different
rating/position, salary, overtime pay and allowance. The contracts were approved by the National Seamen
Board.
2. Upon arrival at the port of Vancouver, Canada, demands for increase in wages were made through the
help of the International Transport Worker’s Federation (ITF), a militant worldwide especially in Canada,
Australia, Scandinavia, and various European countries, interdicting foreign vessels and demanding wage
increases for third world seamen.
3. Wages were increased but complaints were filed by Magsaysay before the NSB. NSB ordered the return of
the additional wages paid for being obtained thru violent means and for lacking NSB approval. NLRC
affirmed the order.
4. Meanwhile, Magsaysay filed estafa charges against the seamen.
5. In this petition, the seamen seeks for the reversal of the NLRC decision and the quashal of the complaints
for estafa.

Issue:
Whether the increase in wages needed the approval of the NSB to be legal (NO)

Ratio:
1. There is nothing in the record supporting the finding that the workers resorted to violent means to obtain
an increase in their wages.
2. It is impractical for the NSB to require the petitioners, caught in the middle of a labor struggle between
the ITF and owners of ocean going vessels halfway around the world in Vancouver, British Columbia to
first secure the approval of the NSB in Manila before signing an agreement which the employer was
willing to sign
3. Accdg to the case of Vir-Jen: The form contracts approved by the National Seamen Board are designed to
protect Filipino seamen not foreign shipowners who can take care of themselves. The standard forms
embody the basic minimums which must be incorporated as parts of the employment contract. (Section
15, Rule V, Rules and Regulations Implementing the Labor Code).lâwphî1.ñèt They are not collective
bargaining agreements or immutable contracts which the parties cannot improve upon or modify in the
course of the agreed period of time
4. The NSB, the Department of Labor and Employment and all its agencies exist primarily for the
workingman's interest and the nation's as a whole.

Digested by Rea A2015