Dear Atty. Vlad,

I used to work with a Business Processing Company. I stayed there for seven years. However, during that period, I was not paid my service incentive leave pay. Last week, I resigned. When I was asking for my service incentive leave pay, I was only given the equivalent of three years because, according to my employer, prescription has already set in. Is my employer correct? Please help me.

Rustom

Dear Rustom,

Your employer is wrong. From what you narrated, you were not paid your service incentive leave pay for seven years, and when you resigned, you were only paid the equivalent of three years SILP.

In the case of Lourdes C. Rodriguez vs Park N Ride Inc. Nicest (Phils.) Inc./Grand Leisure Corp./Sps. Vicente & Estelita B. Javier, (GR 222980, 20 March 2017), the Supreme Court, citing the case of Auto Bus Transport System Inc. vs Bautista (497 Phil. 863, 2005), explained:

"However, Auto Bus Transport System Inc. vs Bautista clarified the correct reckoning of the prescriptive period for service incentive leave pay:"

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"Applying Article 291 of the Labor Code in light of this peculiarity of the service incentive leave, we can conclude that the three-year prescriptive period commences, not at the end of the year when the employee becomes entitled to the commutation of his service incentive leave, but from the time when the employer refuses to pay its monetary equivalent after demand of commutation or upon termination of the employee's services, as the case may be."

"The above construal of Art. 291, vis-a-vis the rules on service incentive leave, is in keeping with the rudimentary principle that in the implementation and interpretation of the provisions of the Labor Code and its implementing regulations, the workingman's welfare should be the primordial and paramount consideration. The policy is to extend the applicability of the decree to a greater number of employees who can avail of the benefits under the law, which is in consonance with the avowed policy of the State to give maximum aid and protection to labor. (Emphasis supplied)."