Service charges belong to employees

This case involves an alleged theft of service charges in a pizza restaurant. The names used in this article are not the real names of the persons and establishments involved.

Ben and Bert, managers of Ben&Bert’s Pizza, owned by BBPizza Inc., were accused of stealing service charges of Ben&Bert’s Pizza’s employees, amounting to P21,000. BBPizza Inc. would issue checks to Ben for encashment and eventual distribution of the service charge shares to the employees. But BBPizza’s accountant, Dan, received an anonymous text asking where the service charges go if they were not distributed to employees. This resulted in an investigation and it was discovered, after Dan spoke to Ben&Bert’s Pizza’s employees, Gabbi and Anika, that they were made to sign the payrolls even if they did not receive any share in the service charges. This caused Ben and Bert to be preventively suspended, and eventually dismissed, due to having been found to be in collusion with each other in withholding the payment of the employee’s shares.

Does the failure to distribute the service charges to the employees constitute theft?

Yes. The Supreme Court found that the managers of Ben&Bert’s Pizza were guilty of theft for keeping service charges which should have been distributed to the employees.

The moment Gabbi and Anika saw the amounts earmarked for them and signed the respective payrolls, they already acquired constructive possession of their share in the service charges. Even though they were not yet in possession of the actual money, they already had the right to control and right to allocate the amount. The Court also provided that there was felonious taking due to a lack of consent on the part of the employees, because they were made to believe that it was being withheld pursuant to a company policy.

Did the crime constitute qualified theft?

No. The qualifying requirement of abuse of confidence was not present in this case. The trust and confidence was between BBPizza Inc. and Ben and Bert. Here, the crime was committed by Ben and Bert not against BBPizza, but against the employees as the ones actually deprived of their shares.

Ben and Bert were found guilty of the crime of theft, as well as ordered to pay their civil liability, with interest, to the employees. (Teologo v. People, G.R. No. 238383, April 2, 2025.)

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