"YOU'RE FIRED!" This illustrious expression in the prominent show "THE APPRENTICE" by Donald Trump, rings true then as it is now predominant in companies either not having a lawyer of their own to give them legal advice on how to fire and employee or not retaining a lawyer as a legal consultant to guide them on how to sever employer-employee relationship with an undesirable employee.
Many employers are still hooked in the practice of firing their employees without legal grounds, worst, without observing the required procedural tenets of due process enunciated by the Labor Code and existing jurisprudence. Little did the employers know that firing an employee is not as easy as what Donald Trump did in his show the Apprentice.
In Philippine jurisdiction, employees enjoy security of tenure, a right that is granted by no less than the Philippine Constitution. This right is granted regardless of the status of employment of the employee, may he be a regular employee, casual employee, probationary employee, project employee and a fixed-term employee. This right simply means the right of an employee to be secured or to continue in employment until the same is terminated by virtue of a valid cause or on grounds authorized by existing law. Said valid or just causes and authorized causes are provided by the Labor Code. The employers need to orient themselves what these just and authorized causes are to justify employees' dismissal. Not only that, they need as well to know the procedural due process involved to completely free themselves from any liability from dismissing an employee. In the words of Chief Justice Panganiban, in an en banc decision in MGG Marine Services, Inc. vs. National Labor Relations Commission. G.R. No. 114313, October 5, 1989, states:
“To constitute a completely valid and faultless dismissal, it is well-settled that the employer must show not only sufficient ground therefor but it must also prove that it observed procedural due process by giving the employee two notices: one of the intention to dismiss, indicating therein his acts or omissions complained against, and two, notice of the decision to dismiss; and an opportunity to answer and rebut the charges against him, in between such notices.
Ignorance of the laws and jurisprudence on how to fire an employee is a messy and perilous territory employers are treading into, which sometimes, for small enterprises, could even reduce them into a mere penury, to which if only known at the outset could not spread and replicate like viruses that would drain company coffer. Knowledge and correct application of Labor Laws and jurisprudence pertaining to firing an employee should be mounted in every Human Resource Department of every company, if only to avoid the costly arbitration proceedings and the possible payment of separation pay, full backwages plus damages and attorney's fees.
