Termination of Employee
Termination of Employment Defined
A number of expressions are commonly used to describe situations when employment is terminated. These include “let go,” “discharged,” “dismissed,” “fired” and “permanently laid off.”
Termination of an Employee in the Philippines
An equality of rights exists between employer and employee. While the employer cannot force the employee to work against his or her will, neither can the employee compel the employer to continue giving him or her work if there is a lawful reason not to do so. Thus, the employer may terminate the services of an employee for just or authorized causes after following the procedure laid down by law, but the employer has the burden of proving the lawfulness of the employee’s dismissal in the proper forum.
Just causes are blameworthy acts on the part of the employee such as serious misconduct, willful disobedience, gross and habitual neglect of duties, fraud or willful breach of trust, commission of a crime and other analogous causes (art. 282, Labor Code).
Authorized causes are of two types – business reasons and disease. The business reasons are installation of labor-saving devices, redundancy, retrenchment and closure or cessation of operation (art. 283, Labor Code). Before the employer can terminate employment on the ground of disease, he must obtain from a competent public health authority a certification that the employee’s disease is of such a nature and at such a stage that it can no longer be cured within a period of six months even with medical attention (art. 284, Labor Code; Implementing Rules of Book VI, Labor Code).
Those hired on a temporary basis, that is, for a “term” or “fixed period” are not regular employees, but are “contractual employees.” Consequently, there is no illegal dismissal when their services are terminated by reason of the expiration of their contracts. Lack of notice of termination is of no consequence, because a contract for employment for a definite period terminates by
A number of expressions are commonly used to describe situations when employment is terminated. These include “let go,” “discharged,” “dismissed,” “fired” and “permanently laid off.”
Termination of an Employee in the Philippines
An equality of rights exists between employer and employee. While the employer cannot force the employee to work against his or her will, neither can the employee compel the employer to continue giving him or her work if there is a lawful reason not to do so. Thus, the employer may terminate the services of an employee for just or authorized causes after following the procedure laid down by law, but the employer has the burden of proving the lawfulness of the employee’s dismissal in the proper forum.
Just causes are blameworthy acts on the part of the employee such as serious misconduct, willful disobedience, gross and habitual neglect of duties, fraud or willful breach of trust, commission of a crime and other analogous causes (art. 282, Labor Code).
Authorized causes are of two types – business reasons and disease. The business reasons are installation of labor-saving devices, redundancy, retrenchment and closure or cessation of operation (art. 283, Labor Code). Before the employer can terminate employment on the ground of disease, he must obtain from a competent public health authority a certification that the employee’s disease is of such a nature and at such a stage that it can no longer be cured within a period of six months even with medical attention (art. 284, Labor Code; Implementing Rules of Book VI, Labor Code).
Those hired on a temporary basis, that is, for a “term” or “fixed period” are not regular employees, but are “contractual employees.” Consequently, there is no illegal dismissal when their services are terminated by reason of the expiration of their contracts. Lack of notice of termination is of no consequence, because a contract for employment for a definite period terminates by