THE Philippines has settled a 12-year-old labour dispute, after the Supreme Court upheld a US$60,000 disability benefit to a seaman who suffered various ailments while working on board a chemical tanker.
The Supreme Court Second Division ruled that Salvador Serna was entitled to compensation even though he fell ill after he stopped working on the MV Hyde Park, owned by a shipping firm in Monaco.
Court records showed he worked for about a year as a bosun on the Hyde Park, which transports toxic chemicals such as methanol, phenol, ethanol, benzene and caustic soda.
SERNA'S STORY
On October 20, 1998, Serna entered into a nine-month contract of employment with petitioners Career Philippines Shipmanagement, Inc.
(Career Phils.) and Societe Anonyme Monegasque Administratio Maritime Ft. Aeriennemonaco (Aeriennemonaco). He was employed as a bosun for M/V Hyde Park, a chemical tanker, with a basic monthly salary of US$642.00. Serna was pronounced fit to work after the required preemployment medical examination, and boarded the vessel on October 25, 1998. Serna had worked for Career Phils. and its foreign principals since 1989, and he had always been hired to board chemical tankers. This was his third consecutive contract with Aeriennemonaco whose tankers transport chemicals such as methanol, phenol, ethanol, benzene, and caustic soda. While on board M/V Hyde Park, Serna experienced weakness and shortness of breath. He lost much weight. On several occasions, he requested for medical attention, but his immediate superior, Captain Jyong, denied his requests since the tanker had a busy schedule. Serna had no choice but to wait for his contract to finish on July 12, 1999. On July 14, 1999, upon his repatriation, he reported to the office of Career Phils. to communicate his physical complaints and to seek medical assistance. He was told that he would be referred to company-designated physicians. NO MORE ABLE TO WORKMr Serna's manning agency, Career Philippines Ship Management, had been deploying him on chemical tankers for a decade.
During his deployment on the Hyde Park he experienced shortness of breath, weakness and weight loss. He was unable to get medical leave and had to wait for the expiration of his contract in 1999, reported the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
After consulting with doctors in the Philippines over the next fewer years, Mr Serna was diagnosed with toxic goiter, thyrotoxic heart disease, chronic atrial fibrillation and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. He was thus declared medically unfit for further work as seaman.
In 2001, Mr Serna filed for compensation before the National Labour Relations Commission (NLRC) as provided under the rules of the mariners' union of which he was a member, with the manning agency and the shipping firm named as respondents.
But they denied liability, saying Mr Serna's contract was already finished and that he did not officially file a medical complaint while on board the ship. They said the seaman also signed a quitclaim after his discharge from the ship.
But a labour arbiter sided with Mr Serna and said he was entitled to 100 per cent compensation under the permanent medical unfitness provisions pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement with the mariners' union and the regulations set by the Philippine Overseas Employment Union.
The NLRC upheld the arbiter in 2005. But the defendants appealed to the Court of Appeals, with case eventually reaching the Supreme Court, where the judges concluded: "We are satisfied, from the discussions of the labour arbiter, the NLRC and the Court of Appeals, that substantial evidence on record exists to support their factual findings on this point."