Termination

Hi Atty. Hope you can share a piece of advise.

Our company recently transferred to another location. During the transfer, we were advised to discreetly move items to our new location since bringing out of boxes is not allowed by the owner of the building since our lease of contract is not yet finished. There were no movers to help us transfer items to the new building. As a result, people took items such as computer peripherals and other items and did not brought it directly to the new building. At first, no one wants to admit that they took something, our manager asked us to talked to our people and tell them to come forward and return the items that they took so that their sanction will be lessen. So we did what we were told and they return the items. To cut it short, they were charged for theft and some of them received termination, others suspension. There were 7 officers and 3 of them were terminated and the rest suspension. Their reason for termination are the ff:

failure to protect/safeguard the tangible and intangible asset of the company.

failure to communicate information that raises ethical questions which should be brought to the attention of higher level management

Gross negligence or deliberate neglect of duty

Dishonesty:deliberately giving false testimony in an official investigation

What are the chances of winning the case in NLRC?

There were no hard evidence, they assume that we know what is happening. Base on the testimony of the agents there were no direct accusation to us saying that we saw them during the act of pilferage. They just mentioned that officers were present during the transfer.

flamegirl, several groups mentioned here, the guys who stole, the officers who stole, the people who told them to return the stuff, etc. who is filing a case?

how many days between the date of transfer of the stuff until they were returned?

the agents are the one who stole. They were charged for theft, for officers, we did not steal, they charged us gross negligence. we told our agents to return the items if they took any. Some of them return the item on the day of transfer, while the others after 3 to 5 days.

question 1. can the agents who were charged for theft file illegal termination since they returned the items?

question 2. can the officers file a case of illegal termination due to gross negligence? We were not aware of the theft but the company insisted that it is impossible for us not to have known the said theft.

ok, now it's more clear.

for the agents who did not immediately return the items, it will be difficult to prosecute a case of illegal dismissal because theft is a serious offense. we're not talking of simple office supplies, are we? probably things of high value? anyway, it should be assessed on a case to case basis. some of those agents may not have warranted termination.

but as for the officers who did not have any hand in the theft, even if they were negligent, that by itself is not a terminable offense. negligence has to both gross and habitual.

they took hard disk , monitor and computer parts.According to them There was also an act of omission on our part. Because we know that there is an act of pilferage and yet we did not report it to higher management.

Also they did not consider mitigating circumstances the fact that during my 8 years stay in the company i did not received any memo and I have good performance as well.

eight years is a long time. again, one negligent act should not be the basis of terminationy. i would argue that a lesser punishment would have sufficed and you were illegally terminated.