24/01/2026
JUST IN: The Supreme Court upheld lower courts rulings that 94 members of the Talents Association of GMA Network are regular employees and were illegally dismissed by the media giant, ending the group’s 11-year fight for separation pay and backwages.
Members of the group had been rendering work to GMA without being regular employees for up to 15 years when they first took the matter before the National Labor Relations Commission in 2014. As contractual workers, they did not have access to SSS, Pag-ibig, and PhilHealth benefits, and did not have security of tenure. The commission affirmed that the members were regular employees in 2015, which was later upheld by the Court of Appeals in 2019.
Raising the matter to the Supreme Court was GMA’s final attempt to reverse the decision. But the high court instead affirmed the rulings of the commission and the Court of Appeals for GMA to award separation pay and backwages to 50 illegally dismissed employees.
“This is 11 years in the making, during which our members have emotionally and mentally suffered from having to take to court what we considered our home network. It was not an easy decision to file the very first case in 2014, and it has not been easy since. We saw our friends leave one by one, their sudden departures heavily impacting livelihoods and careers, when all we ever wanted was to tell stories for the Filipino people,” the group said.
GMA can still file a motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court, but the media workers already considered the matter settled.
“It is time for media companies, especially broadcast networks, to scrap its longtime practice of contractualization through a talent system. It is time to protect Filipino media workers. This should not have cost us this much to fight. But we are glad we did. This is our gift to the next generation,” the Talents Association of GMA said.
