I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people.
Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody.
This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice.
Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!
This post is written in response to a request made by a friend of mine in Japan.
The general law that covers all labor matters is the Labor Code. In case the other labor-related laws have nothing to say regarding to specific problems the Labor Code and the Civil Code are the next in line to search for solutions.
Bear in mind that even if RA 8042 (the migrant workers' law) grants assistance and protection to Filipinos working abroad, these workers are still under obligation to be faithful to their employers. RA 8042 is meant to provide protection to OCWs only from abusive foreign employers and illegal recruiters.
Rights must never be abused. And Art. 282 of the Labor Code provides several instances where an employer may fire bad employees:
1.) Serious Misconduct
2.) Willful disobedience of a lawful, work-related order
3.) Gross and habitual neglect of duty
4.) Fraud/willful betrayal of trust and confidence
5.) Commission of a crime against the employer, his family or duly appointed representatives
6.) Analogous cases
Regarding analogous cases an employee may be fired if he commits acts that are similar, related, or just as bad as any of the previous five cases. Here are some examples of analogous cases:
1.) Incompetence/inefficiecy
2.) Threats against the employer, his family or subordinates
3.) Injury/illness caused by the employee's own negligence (So people who commit self-inflicted injuries, beware! Civil Code Art. 2179.)
4.) If the employee was injured or got sick and refused the employer's offer for medical assistance (which can even be considered gross and habitual neglect of duty, since employees are expected to take care of their health while at work.)
5.) If the injury/illness is work-related and the employee could have prevented it but didn't (known as contributory negligence, also found in Art. 2179 of the Civil Code.)
6.) Sabotage
7.) And many more!
Although our labor laws are heavily one-sided, employers can still defend themselves if they can prove that their employees' behavior is illegal.
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