Are project employees entitled to separation pay?

THE employment of 65 employees was terminated due to the expiration of their contracts.  Hence, a compliant for illegal dismissal was filed against their employer, a corporation.  These 65 employees belonged to the same labor union. To show its support, the union filed a notice of strike with the corporation on the grounds of “union-busting, subcontracting of projects which could have been assigned to the dismissed employees, and unfair labor practice.” Six days later, the union declared a strike and began to picket in the perimeter of the corporation’s premises. As a result, the corporation filed a motion to declare the strike illegal and requested for clearance to terminate the employment of 90 employees who took part in the strike.  Out of the 90 employees, 74 were project employees of the corporation, all of which were under a fixed term contract.  The Labor Arbiter (LA) denied the request for clearance and ordered the reinstatement of the employees.

The National Labor Relations Commision (NLRC) modified the LA’s decision by granting clearance to dismiss the union officers, while reinstating the regular employees who were not union officers.  Neither were the project employees reinstated on account that their employment contracts had already expired.