The Supreme Court has ruled that backwages owed to probationary employees who were illegally dismissed extend beyond the unexpired portion of their probationary period.

The ruling, penned by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho, Jr., emphasized that such backwages cover the period from when compensation was withheld up to reinstatement.

The case involved Geraldine M. Barbosa, a probationary employee at C.P. Reyes Hospital.
Barbosa signed a six-month probationary contract in September 2013, with the expectation of training for various nursing positions. However, C.P. Reyes Hospital terminated her employment on December 30, 2013, citing negative performance feedback.

Barbosa filed a complaint for illegal dismissal, which the Labor Arbiter upheld, noting that she had met the hospital's standards based on her evaluators' passing marks.

The National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) later reversed this decision, but the Court of Appeals reinstated the Labor Arbiter's ruling in Barbosa's favor.

The SC affirmed the decision, denying C.P. Reyes Hospital's petition for review.
The Court found Barbosa's dismissal unjustified, as she had achieved the passing grades required for regularization per her probationary contract.

Moreover, the Court deemed the hospital's claims of unsatisfactory performance as unfounded, as they were issued after Barbosa's termination without proper evaluation.

As a result of her illegal dismissal, Barbosa was entitled to reinstatement, full backwages, and other benefits.

The Court clarified that illegally dismissed probationary employees, like regular employees, are entitled to backwages until their actual reinstatement, not just until the end of their probationary period. If reinstatement is not feasible, backwages are due from the time compensation was withheld up to the finality of the decision in the illegal dismissal case.

The Court emphasized that both the Constitution and the Labor Code guarantee the right to security of tenure, applying to both regular and probationary employees.

It clarified that the mere lapse of a probationary period without regularization does not automatically end the employment relationship. Without valid grounds for dismissal, a probationary employee is entitled to continue working beyond the probationary period.

In Barbosa's case, the Court ruled that backwages should be computed from January 1, 2014, when her compensation was withheld, until the finality of the Court's decision.