01/03/2025
The (SC) has ruled that security guards working under a broken period scheme must be paid overtime if their break is too short for personal use.
In a Decision written by Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul B. Inting, the SCโs Third Division ordered Seabren Security Agency (Seabren) to compensate security guards Lorenzo D. Cambila, Jr. and Albajar S. Samad (security guards) for the four-hour breaks or intervals they were required to spend at work beyond their regular duty hours.
Seabren hired the security guards and made them work 12-hour shifts. Their schedule required them to work four hours, take a four-hour break, and work another four hours.
When Seabren ignored their request for a salary increase and reassigned them to a different post, the security guards filed a complaint for constructive dismissal and unpaid overtime pay.
Ruling in favor of the security guards, the Supreme Court found that they were able to show they worked more than eight hours and are thus entitled to overtime pay under the Labor Code.
The SC held that the broken period scheme implemented by Seabren was designed to circumvent labor laws and avoid overtime pay. โIt was impractical and costly for minimum wage security guards to leave work, go home, and then come back on the same day,โ said the SC.
Read the full text of the Press Release at:
https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-security-guards-in-broken-shift-scheme-entitled-to-overtime-pay/.
Read the full text of the Decision at:
https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/261716-lorenzo-d-cambila-jr-et-al-vs-seabren-security-agency-et-al/.
Copying of this content is subject to the SC PIOโs Credit Attribution Policy: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/credit-attribution-policy/.
