THE Court of Appeals has ruled that the more than 70 "talents" of television giant ABS-CBN should be considered as regular employees who are entitled to benefits and privileges.

In a 21-page decision, the CA "annulled and set aside" resolutions issued by the National Labor Relations Commission on October 2008 and January 2009 dismissing the complaints for regularization and for money claims filed by the talents.

The CA ruled that the NLRC gravely abused its discretion in issuing the resolutions considering that there have been similar cases before where so-called talents were considered as regular employees.

"Thus, we rule that public respondent  had gravely abused its discretion in ruling against settled precedents.  We now hold that herein petitioners are regular employees of private respondent ABS-CBN and as such, are entitled to the benefits and privileges accorded to regular employees under their collective bargaining agreement and/or company policy," the CA said.

The appellate court held that the petitioners composed of sound engineers, cameramen, audio men, drivers, VTR men, lightmen and camera control unit personnel have sufficiently established the existence of employee-employer relationship between them and the network as defined under Article  280 of the Labor Code.

Under Article 280, "an employment shall be deemed to be regular where the employee has been engaged to perform activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer, except where the employment has been fixed for a specific project."