BY HERBERT VEGO
HERE’S how a puny, sick ship steward fought and won a legal battle against a giant shipping agency. Let this story inspire other similarly-situated seamen to likewise fight for whatever lawful monetary claims they are entitled to.
Seaman Amado Bautista won his fight sometime in 2012 when the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) ordered the shipping agency CGI Group to pay him the amount of US $60,000 (around P2.5-million in local currency) as compensation for “total disability.” Bautista was a terminated Filipino steward of the luxury cruise ship “M/V Carnival Miracle.”
He could not have earned that “miraculous” windfall had he not played David to a Goliath that had earlier offered him a much lower amount of only $7,465. Let us recall.
At the age of 33, Bautista applied for a steward’s position, passed the requisite “fit to work” pre-employment medical examination, and boarded the cruise ship Carnival Miracle. He looked forward to a smooth-sailing future on that job,
After a few months at sea, however, he complained of chronic back pain, which eventually worsened despite the drugs administered to him by the ship physician. Subsequent laboratory examinations offshore confirmed that he was suffering from disc herniation or lumbar pain, which disabled him from further performing his tasks.
Consequently, the company airlifted him to Manila for hospitalization at company-expense.
Meanwhile, the company offered him a disability pay of $7,465 – or a little over P320,000 after his doctor had recommended his termination due to physical debility.
Knowing that it was insufficient and would disqualify him from further ship work, Bautista rejected the offer and sought the help of the Free Legal Assistance for Sea Farers (FLAS), which filed a labor case against CGI Group at the NLRC.
FLAS lawyer Sharon Dizon argued that her client was entitled to a much higher compensation because his condition was tantamount to “total and permanent disability” incurred at a time when his contract had not yet expired. Under the Philippine Overseas Administration (POEA) standard, the minimum compensation for that instance ought to be $60,000 or P2.5-million – around eight times higher than the company’s $7,465 offer.
To make the long story short, seaman Amado Bautista won the case and pocketed the monetary award of $60,000.
The NLRC ruling jibed with an oft-quoted a Supreme Court observation: “Disability should not be understood more on its medical significance but on the loss of earning capacity.”
In Vicente vs. EOG (G.R. No. 85024, Jan. 23, 1991), the Supreme Court had held: “Total disability does not require that the employee be absolutely disabled or totally paralyzed. What is necessary is that the injury must be such that the employee cannot pursue his usual work and earn therefrom.”
The moral lesson here for other seamen with more or less the same compensation problem is that they should always assert their right to maximum final compensation within three years. The monetary award could tide them over for years. If properly managed, it could be invested profitably for a lifetime. Failure to do so could condemn them to a future of penury.
They may also seek the help of the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarer, which has an office here in Iloilo City at GSAT, 2nd Floor, Jamerlan Bldg., Iznart St., or listen to the radio program “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo every Sunday, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. It is hosted by paralegals Neri Camiña, Nelly Nobleza and this writer. We may be reached by cell phone number 09173288742./PN
