pls help: retrenchment and separation pay

Hi,

Good day everyone. I am a newbie in this forum and I together with my colleagues need your legal advice regarding our separation pay that is being hold by our HR because of lack of our "Employees Handbook". I will copy and paste the exact email conversations:

-----------------------
The announcement:

Hi, All – please be advised that the schedule to visit the office to pick up payment/settlement of your separation pay will be as follows:

a)February 14, 2012 - Dev Staff, Marketing Staff, Admin Staff, Ops Manager, Team Leaders, Trainers, QA Specialists, Product Purchasing and Formezone Staff

b)February 15, 2013 – All Ops Agents

To avoid any delay in processing/releasing the payment, kindly DO NOT FORGET to bring the following as requirements :

1.Company ID
2.HMO Card
3. Employee’s Handbook
4. Others i.e. Headsets for Team Leaders/QAs

Time Schedule:
10:00am – 12:00NN
2:00pm - 5:00PM

Please be advise that we will strictly follow this schedule.

Thank you.
With best regards,
Joy

-----------------------------------------

Dear All – in the absence of any requirements below, we regret that we cannot release your final pay. Therefore, if you lost the Company Employee handbook, then I suggest that you reproduce (in color) and bound them then bring it on the schedule of your visit to the office.

Thanks,
Joy

-------------------------------------------
The argument:

Hi,

In line with this e-mail, we have consulted legal authorities to make sure that we are still in the context of labor law to protect our rights as an employee. Here is what we have got from them:

"Under Article 283 of the Labor Code, there are three basic requisites of a valid retrenchment: (1) necessary to prevent losses; (2) written notice to employees and DOLE at least 1 month before retrenchment; and (3) separation pay is paid.

In short, the Code REQUIRES employers to pay the employees.

Presenting the employees' handbook as a condition for payment is not in the Code. Even assuming it is a company policy, its strict implementation to the extent that non-presentment of the employee handbook amounts to forfeiture of the separation pay entitled to the employee is absurd and not in accordance with the spirit and intent of the law on labor which aims to protects employees' rights."

In addition, "It's unnecessary and unreasonable for the employees to reproduce the handbook. The condition of retrenchment on the Labor Code is very simple: pay separation pay. But these company conditions make the employees' lives more complicated. Seriously, over a handbook?"

Hoping to hear from you soon.
Thank you.
Abigail

-------------------------------------------------------

From JOY again:

Hi, Abigail – we also talked to our lawyer about this matter. Anyone who will be separated from the Company is subject to compliance of clearance.

Thank you.

Joy

---------------------------------------------

Hi Joy,

I have worked with 5 different companies and this is the first time that I have been required to surrender a handbook before I can get my last pay. Normally the handbook is a personal copy of an employee, and the company don't get it back for whatever reason.

Let's not complicate things here, if Larventech "REALLY" need the handbook, why don't you just charge the employees who lost their copy whatever the cost of that handbook instead of letting them to reproduce it?

We just lost our jobs and some of us still don't have a job. Don't complicate things for us just to get our separation pay.

Thanks,
Bryan

------------------------------------------------

Hi Ms. Joy,

I agree with Bryan.

With all the companies I worked with, the normal process was, the clearance should come first before the final check will be processed by the company. Should there be any item not returned by the employee, necessary deduction must be done from their separation pay.

I hope everything will be settled for everybody.


Thank you.

Regards,
Jessette

----------------------------------------------------

Sir/Ma'am/Forumers

What can you say about this matter? We really need your legal advice. What if the HR department insist on asking us to reproduce the handbook and hold our separation pay? Is it correct that the handbook is our own personal copy, thus, we do not need to surrender it just to get our separation pay?

*On retrenchment po kasi ang company namin and 75-80% lost our job and now they are holding the separation pay just because of the handbook. A lot of us lost our employee's handbook already.

Thank you very much in advance!

By the way, the legal authorities that Abigail mentioned are law graduates/students.

how much will it cost you to reproduce the handbook? don't make a big deal about it.. just reproduce it and get it over with.. it's part of your clearance.. so just comply, no more problems.