Termination by Employee with Just Cause

ARTICLE 285. Termination by employee. -

(a) An employee may terminate without just cause the employee-employer relationship by serving a written notice on the employer at least one (1) month in advance. The employer upon whom no such notice was served may hold the employee liable for damages.

(b) An employee may put an end to the relationship without serving any notice on the employer for any of the following just causes:

1.  Serious insult by the employer or his representative on the honor and person of the employee;

2.  Inhuman and unbearable treatment accorded the employee by the employer or his representative;

3.  Commission of a crime or offense by the employer or his representative against the person of the employee or any of the immediate members of his family; and

4.  Other causes analogous to any of the foregoing.

What are the two kinds of termination by an employee?

      1. termination by employee without just cause (voluntary resignation)

      2. termination by employee with just cause

What are the just causes for termination of employment by employee?

An employee may resign without serving any notice on the employer for any of the following just causes:

1. Serious insult by the employer or his representative on the honor and person of the employee;
2. Inhuman and unbearable treatment accorded the employee by the employer or his representative;
3. Commission of a crime or offense by the employer or his representative against the person of the employee or any of the immediate members of his family; and
4. Other causes analogous to any of the foregoing.

What are the requisites for serious insult as a ground to terminate employment by employee?

In order to be considered a just cause to warrant the valid termination of employment by the employee without notice, the following requisites must concur:

1. The insult must be serious in character;

2. It must be committed by the employer or his representative; and

3. It must injure the honor and person of the employee.

What are the requisites for serious inhumane and unbearable treatment as a ground to terminate employment by employee?

This ground may be invoked if the following requisites concur:

1. The treatment is inhumane and unbearable in nature; and

2. It is perpetrated by the employer or his representative.

What are the requisites for commission of crime as a ground to terminate employment by employee?

The requisites for this ground are as follows:

1. A crime or offense is committed;

2. It was committed by the employer or his representative; and

3. It was perpetrated against the person of the employee or any of the immediate members of his family.

What are other analogous causes that may be invoked as a ground to terminate employment by employee?

Other analogous causes that may be cited are: constructive dismissal or forced resignation.

What is the concept of constructive dismissal?

Constructive dismissal is an employer’s act amounting to dismissal but made to appear as if it were not – a dismissal in disguise. In most cases of constructive dismissal, the employee is allowed to continue to work, but is simply reassigned, or demoted, or his pay diminished without a valid reason to do so.

Constructive dismissal does not always involve forthright dismissal or diminution in rank, compensation, benefit and privileges. There may be constructive dismissal if an act of clear discrimination, insensibility or disdain by an employer becomes so unbearable on the part or the employee that it could foreclose any choice by him except to forego his continued employment. (Hyatt Taxi Services case, G.R. No. 143204, June 26, 2001.)

Constructive dismissal is an involuntary resignation resulting in cessation of work resorted to when continued employment becomes impossible, unreasonable or unlikely; when there is a demotion in rank or a diminution in pay; or when a clear discrimination, insensibility or disdain by an employer becomes unbearable to an employee. (Escobin v. NLRC, GR No. 118159, April 15, 1998)

Cases:

1. Diminution of pay. A diminution of pay is prejudicial to the employee and amounts to constructive dismissal. (Francisco vs. NLRC)

2. Demotion of rank. In Globe Telecom, Inc. v. Florendo-Flores, it was held that where an employee ceases to work due to a demotion of rank or a diminution of pay, an unreasonable situation arises which creates an adverse working environment rendering it impossible for such employee to continue working for her employer. Hence, her severance from the company was not of her own making and therefore amounted to an illegal termination of employment. (Cited in Francisco vs. NLRC, G.R. No. 170087, August 21, 2006.)

3.   Reassignment involving demotion of rank or a diminution of pay. One does not need to stretch his imagination to distinguish the work of a security guard and that of a common agricultural labourer in a sugar plantation. Likewise, there was a diminution of salary, for security guard is paid on a monthly basis while a labourer in a plantation is paid either on a daily or piece-work basis. Laborers do not work year round but only when needed and on off-season months they are not required to work at all. (Ledesma vs NLRC, G.R. No. 110930, July 13, 1995)

4. Compulsion to make unnecessary choice. The president claimed that Majaducon stopped teaching on his own volition supposedly because when he discovered that Majaducon was appearing as collaborating lawyer in a case against the former mayor, Majaducon was reminded that the school owed favors to the city government with whom the school had to maintain cordial relations. Eventually, Majaducon was asked to choose whether to continue as a faculty member or to withdraw as a lawyer against the mayor. Such compulsion to make unnecessary choice placed undue and unjustified pressure on the employee who otherwise would not have thought of leaving his employment as a teacher. There was no showing whatsoever that Majaducon’s work as counsel interfered with his duties as a teacher. His cessation from employment could not, therefore, be considered as voluntary on his part and was in the nature of contrivance to effect a dismissal without cause. (RMCFU v NLRC, G.R. Nos. 59012-13, October 12, 1989)

5. Transfer of employee amounting to constructive dismissal. A transfer amounts to constructive dismissal when the transfer is unreasonable, unlikely, inconvenient, impossible, or prejudicial to the employee. (Phil. Industrial Security Agency Corp. vs. Aguinaldo, G.R. No. 149974, June 15, 2005.)

Transfer of employee NOT amounting to constructive dismissal. Transfer of an employee from one area of operation to another is a management prerogative and is not constitutive of constructive dismissal, when the transfer is based on sound business judgment, unattended by a demotion in rank or a diminution of pay or bad faith. (Tan vs. NLRC, G.R. No. 128290, November 24, 1998.)

What are the distinctions between constructive dismissal and forced resignation?

Both forced resignation and constructive dismissal consist in the act of quitting because continued employment is rendered impossible, unreasonable or unlikely as in the case of an offer involving a demotion in rank and a diminution in pay. However, in forced resignation, as distinguished from constructive dismissal, the employee is made to do or perform an involuntary act - submission or tender of resignation - meant to validate the action of management in inveigling, luring or influencing or practically forcing the employee to effectuate the termination of employment, instead of doing the termination himself.