{"id":6018,"date":"2019-06-08T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/?p=6018"},"modified":"2020-06-03T13:17:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T05:17:57","slug":"serious-misconduct-just-cause-in-employment-termination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/serious-misconduct-just-cause-in-employment-termination\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious Misconduct: Just Cause in Employment Termination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An employer may terminate an employment for serious misconduct or willful disobedience by the employee of the lawful orders of his employer or representative in connection with his work. Employees in the Philippines enjoy <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/glossary-labor-code-of-the-philippines\/#Security-Tenure\">security of tenure<\/a>. Under the <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/labor-code-of-the-philippines-presidential-decree-no-442-full-text-table-of-contents\/\">Labor Code<\/a>, no <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/glossary-labor-code-of-the-philippines\/#Employee\">employee<\/a> may be terminated or dismissed, except for <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/glossary-labor-code-of-the-philippines\/#Just-Causes\">just<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/glossary-labor-code-of-the-philippines\/#Authorized-Causes\">authorized causes<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/glossary-labor-code-of-the-philippines\/#Employer\">employer<\/a> has the <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/glossary-labor-code-of-the-philippines\/#Burden-Proof\">burden of proving<\/a>, among others, that the facts support the elements of the cause used by the company to justify the employment termination. Each ground has specific elements. It is important, therefore, for management, or at least the HR staff, to be familiar with these factors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"671\" src=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Serious-Misconduct-Just-Cause-Termination-Philippines.png\" alt=\"Serious Misconduct Just Cause Termination Philippines\" class=\"wp-image-7685\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Article 297(a) of the <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/labor-code-of-the-philippines-presidential-decree-no-442-full-text-table-of-contents\/\">Labor Code<\/a> covers two just causes: serious misconduct, and <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/willful-disobedience-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">willful disobedience<\/a> (the latter ground is discussed in a <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/willful-disobedience-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">separate post<\/a>). Misconduct, defined as the transgression of some established and definite rule or action, a forbidden act, a dereliction of duty, willful in character and implies wrongful intent and not mere error in judgment, is not enough to justify a termination. It has to be serious misconduct. A misconduct is considered serious when:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>1. There must be misconduct;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>2. The misconduct must be of such grave and aggravated character;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>3. It must relate to the performance of the employee\u2019s duties; and<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>4. There must be showing that the employee becomes unfit to continue working for the employer.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Just causes:<\/strong><br \/>* 1.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/serious-misconduct-just-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Serious misconduct<\/a><br \/>* 2.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/willful-disobedience-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Willful disobedience or insubordination<\/a><br \/>* 3.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/gross-and-habitual-neglect-of-duties-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Gross and habitual neglect of duties<\/a><br \/>* 4.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/fraud-or-willful-breach-of-trust-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Fraud or willful breach of trust<\/a><br \/>* 5.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/loss-of-trust-and-confidence-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Loss of trust and confidence<\/a><br \/>* 6.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/commission-of-a-crime-or-offense-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Commission of a crime or offense<\/a><br \/>* 7.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/analogous-causes-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Analogous causes<\/a>&nbsp;<\/td><td><strong>Authorized causes:<\/strong><br \/>* 1.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/installation-of-labor-saving-devices-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Installation of labor-saving devices<\/a><br \/>* 2.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/redundancy-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Redundancy<\/a><br \/>* 3.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/retrenchment-or-downsizing-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Retrenchment or downsizing<\/a><br \/>* 4.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/closure-or-cessation-of-operation-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Closure or Cessation of Operation<\/a><br \/>* 5.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/disease-authorized-cause-in-employment-termination\/\">Disease<\/a>&nbsp;<br \/><br \/>* Also:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/twin-notice-rule-and-procedural-requirements-in-employment-termination-proceedings\/\">Due Process in termination cases<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An employer may terminate an employment for serious misconduct or willful disobedience by the employee of the lawful orders of his employer or representative in connection with his work. Employees in the Philippines enjoy security of tenure. Under the Labor Code, no employee may be terminated or dismissed, except for just or authorized causes. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[371],"tags":[136,1446,87,405,138,135,244,1449,90,1450,134],"class_list":["post-6018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hr-and-labor","tag-authorized-causes","tag-dismissal-of-employee","tag-employees","tag-employers","tag-employment","tag-just-causes","tag-labor-code","tag-labor-laws","tag-philippines","tag-serious-misconduct","tag-termination-of-employment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7686,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions\/7686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}