Staff Reduction

Hi,

Query lng po tungkol sa situation nmin sa isang BPO center (I wont name drop at this point).
Scenario:
Yung isang account (you can call it department ) nmin ay kailangan mag-downsize ng staff. I personally have nothing against that since practical lng nmn ung desisyon.
Although, dun sa mga taong maaalis will be given an option to transfer to a different account in 30 days and will be on floating status take note that ung 1st 15days nun is non paid unless you have vl or sl credit otherwise hindi un paid ung paid na floating status mo will start on the 2nd 15days.

At this point in time walang account na tumatanggap sa mga tao na naalis since wala daw "opening" then the account managers,hr and recruitment team told them that may option nmn daw sa ibang site which is napakalayo sa site nmin we are located somewhere in the south of Luzon and the option that was given were sites located in middle and north Luzon or somewhere in Visayas in short for someone living in the vicinity of the company it would not be practical.

Having that said, of course ung ibang employee na maaalis wala ng choice but the catch is they will be tagged as resigned so redundancy pay , or separation pay due to staff reduction will not apply as stated in (Book VI - Post Employment Art. 283. Closure of establishment and reduction of personnel. ) of the labor code. Since as per their explanation we are trying to find an account that you can work for but it will be they employee that will choose not to work for them anymore.

Also, these employees are regular employee which don't have any grave misconduct or some sort. They are above passing all the metrics required as a regular employee they were just chosen due since lowest daw sila sa "stack ranking" which honestly was not shown in details due to as they said "confidential info" daw.

So in short these people are given "options" to still work for the company and if not taken
will be tagged as someone who left the company removing the entitlement of the redundancy pay.

I am not someone who knows a lot with laws but as an employee I feel that somehow this may have a violation sa labor code.

Any piece of information, suggestion and most of all enlightenment of the situation will be very much appreciated.

Thank you

they can place employees in floating status for 6 months, after 6 months they have to give separation pay. Floating status is off course without pay.

Medyo grey area yung situation nyo because a) if you are being ordered to transfer you have to comply. b) because you are being "offered" a transfer you may refuse.

Bottom line you cannot complain YET. You have to wait if you are placed in floating status for more than 6 months

Thank you for the response.
Follow up questions lng po:

1.Is the 6 months standard for every company or mandated?
2. Say your in that floating status and you have been able to find another company to work for (which most likely will be the choice of most of the employees) Will you be tagged as terminated given that you are in that status.
3. the "YET" that you mentioned say you are on that point na more than 6 months ka na floating what will happen then?
4. to confirm na din po pag nagrefuse ung employee sa "offer" then that means na hindi n sya entitled sa redundancy pay ?
5. any other information that I can provide to clear up that "gray area" baka po maka2long lng na maging definitive ung mga variable nung scenario

jkoliva wrote:Thank you for the response.
Follow up questions lng po:

1.Is the 6 months standard for every company or mandated?
2. Say your in that floating status and you have been able to find another company to work for (which most likely will be the choice of most of the employees) Will you be tagged as terminated given that you are in that status.
3. the "YET" that you mentioned say you are on that point na more than 6 months ka na floating what will happen then?
4. to confirm na din po pag nagrefuse ung employee sa "offer" then that means na hindi n sya entitled sa redundancy pay ?

1. it is the law.
2. if you find another job while in floating status you should also as a matter of courtesy, file your resignation.
3. you should be given separation benefits.

4. to confirm na din po pag nagrefuse ung employee sa "offer" then that means na hindi n sya entitled sa redundancy pay ?
You are not entitled to separation pay kasi you were never declared redundant by the company. Its not bec of the offer. You may become entitled to it if after 6 months hindi parin kayo nabibigayan ng ibang trabaho.

5. any other information that I can provide to clear up that "gray area" baka po maka2long lng na maging definitive ung mga variable nung scenario
- the grey area exists because in my opinion your situation straddles 2 different scenarios. If the company had ordered you to transfer to the other accounts and you refused you may be terminated but since they merely offered you the transfer, in my opinion then they cannot terminate you for refusing. But some practitioners would disagree and feel you can be terminated because of this.
Hence the grey area.

Hi Po,
Thank you for the input, sorry but i'd like to make sure that i can cover this in this query ,
I don't know if it would change something but ung term po na "transfer" na sinabi ko the actual process po nun sa scenario na ito, is si employee required mag apply into another account within the company. Hence an interview and the usual recruitment process has to be done for the agent to be accepted into that account. Less the documents needed and such.

Also , the I was wondering why ung ibang account sa site nmin ayaw i accept ung employees na ililipat they don't even want to interview the said employees given na these employee have the skills and qualification for their account and their recruitment(hiring) process is still in progress. This I understand maybe something internal but with that scenario we are thinking that somehow they are avoiding these employee since they are the lowest in the "stack ranking".

I really appreciate the response at least I am aware now what position am I at in our company. I am quite concerned since its not impossible that all of us (150-200 employee) are next in line with this process that they are doing since the account that we are in is steadily (for a lack of better term ) going down.

Doesn't change anything. You still need to wait six months if you are placed in floating status

I see, nonetheless thank you for the time and the knowledge.