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Question: I hired a worker as a probationary employee under a probationary employment contract. At the end of her probationary period six months after, I decided not to regularize her and to terminate her employment because she was not a very good worker. Is my action legal? Answer: No. You committed illegal termination. Question: I hired someone as a probationary employee verbally. We did not sign a written probationary employment contract. After one month, when I realized she did not meet our job requirements, I decided to let her go. Was the termination legal? Was she, in fact, a probationary employee? Answer: No. The termination of her employment was illegal. She is by law a regular employee, not a probationary employee, despite your verbal agreement. Question: We hired a worker on probationary basis. After six months, because he did not meet the requirements for regularization that were clearly spelled out in his Probationary Employment Contract, we extended his probationary employment status by another six months just to give him another chance. He claims that he is now a regular employee even after he signed the new probationary employment contract. Is he correct? Answer: Yes. He is correct. He is now a regular employee. Question: As a friendly gesture, I hired the relative of a friend who was in great need of work because he had been jobless for close to a year and had to feed |
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a family of six. Because I run a small company only, we both agreed that he would be paid less than the minimum wage. We also agreed that I had the right to let him go anytime when I no longer needed his services. After seven months, business was so slow, I decided to terminate his services. He filed a complaint for unpaid wages and illegal termination with the National Labor Relations Commission. How do you think will the case be decided? Answer: The case will most likely be decided against you. Your agreement to pay less than the minimum wage will be nullified. And your termination of his services, despite your agreement to terminate him at your discretion anytime, declared illegal. Question: We caught an employee on camera committing theft by taking away a computer notebook owned by the company. Because we caught him red-handed, we terminated his services when he reported for work the next day. He filed a complaint for illegal termination with the NLRC. How do you think will the case be decided? Answer: The case will most likely be decided against you. Your termination of his services will be declared illegal. Question: I reprimanded an employee whom I caught sleeping. Instead of apologizing, he shouted at me in full view of other employees. I was so angered and offended that I decided to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him. We complied with the so-called two-notice rule and terminated his services. He filed a case for illegal dismissal. How do you think will the case be decided? Answer: The case will most likely be decided against you. Your termination of his services will be declared illegal. Question: After our management meeting, we decided to retrench some of our employees because of company losses. We announced this decision to ten of our affected workers the next day effective in 15 days. We paid them a full severance package that even exceeded the requirements of law. They filed a case for illegal dismissal. How do you think will the case be decided? Answer: The case will most likely be decided against you. Your termination of his services will be declared illegal. Question: Before the workers were terminated, they signed a Quitclaim that stated that their retrenchment was legal. How do you think will the case be decided? Answer: The case will most likely be decided against you notwithstanding the Quitclaim that they signed.> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Did you get the answers right? If you got any wrong or would like to know the reasons behind the answers, you may want to know more about our country’s labor laws by joining the two-day pro-management seminars organized by the Asian Institute of Marketing and Entrepreneurship. This will probably be one of the wisest decisions you can make for your business. You may not be aware that our country’s labor laws explicitly provide that all doubts are resolved in favor of labor. If you make a mistake, the action you make can be deemed illegal and will lead to judgment against you involving thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands of pesos. You may not know that if a worker is illegally terminated, the employer will be required to reinstate him and pay backwages from the date of illegal termination to the date of reinstatement plus damages. To learn more about labor-management issues, join the pro-management Labor Seminar series of the Asian Institute of Marketing and Entrepreneurship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ These questions and answers are excerpted from the forthcoming book, Q&A Primer on Labor Laws for Managers and Business Executives, written by Atty. Manuel Jose Oyson III. Atty. Oyson is a labor-management practitioner who took his law from the University of the Philippines-College of Law. He placed No. 17 in the 1997 Philippine Bar Exams. He has an Exec. Master of Business Administration from the Asian Institute of Management and a BA from the University of the Philippines-Diliman where he graduated Cum Laude. He has taught at the University of the Philippines, the University of San Jose-Recoletos and the University of Santo Tomas Graduate School. He is President of the Asian Institute of Marketing and Entrepreneurship and used to lecture on labor law and marketing with AIME. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. (Research) at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He has written three books, “Managers’ Executive Handbook on Labor Law Forms and Contracts”, “Breaking the 25 Greatest Myths of Entrepreneurship: Unlocking the Secrets to Business Success”, and “Passing the Bar Exams in 30 days: Guerilla Tactics in Bar Exams Preparation”. |
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