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I would like to seek legal advice.
This message might be too big and contains too much information, but this is basically what I plan to submit to DOLE/NLRC with just the specifics changed to be vague as to comply to secrecy.
I would like to file a complaint to the company and the managers I was employed from for unjust and illegal termination of my employment. I have been employed by the company as a probationary employee for four weeks for the position “IT”. The reason that I think my termination was illegal was due to multiple factors. For the purpose of this story, I will establish the names “HR Manager”, “Operations Manager”, “Finance Manager”, “Senior IT” and “IT Staff”. To note that these are not their positions per say, The company is so broken (and new from what I heard) that they have really not clearly stated their positions, but these is what I see what they do. Operations Manager is basically top brass and not local, Finance Manager has some clout and I see her as 2nd in charge, and HR Manager is basically the front facing manager of the company. Senior IT is the only IT personnel they have before me, and IT Staff was hired at the same time as me with the same position. I will also address the dates from Day 1 to Day X (I posted this today which is Day 30, I was terminated Day 26) as I want to hide the dates that occurred. Do keep note that I am only hiding specifics by replacing them to something less traceable.
It is understood that as a probationary employee, the Company has the right to hire whom they want. But as part of the labor code, a probationary employee can only be terminated under just cause or if the probationary employee fails to meet the evaluation of the employer. The evaluation metrics of the company was not made known to me. And when I talked to IT Staff, he has confirmed that there were no evaluation metrics that was discussed with us during contract signing, Day 4, until the time I was terminated. I was left with a quitclaim and my severance pay for the date range of Day 10 to Day 26, together with the previous cutoff’s tax and other deductions because they claim that they have not submitted it to the government offices since they process it one month late. I offered that I will not take the quitclaim and the last pay so to talk more about the evaluation the next working day, but the secretary has told me that I “wont be able to get the money” at all if I don’t take it now, and they wont release my payroll for the cutoff for the second half of that month. Clearly the quitclaim was signed under duress. At this point, I requested for a copy of the Employment Contract that I signed, and was declined to the reason that the document was still being notarized. I requested for this document for the sole purpose of trying to validate what were the evaluation metrics.
Also to note the fact that there was no feedback of my performance during my time until they have verbally told me that my employment was terminated, and that the evaluation paper that was shown to me was clearly lacking in information of my actual evaluation.
I have not been given a copy, nor was asked to sign a copy of the evaluation, but here are the details I recall of the evaluation which made me believe that the evaluation paper was invalid. The basic build of the evaluation paper had a metrics with explanation of what the metrics hold, and were graded: Above Expectation, Within Expectation, Below Expectation, Unacceptable and Not Applicable. The expected space for specifying the exact instance of the grading were all left blank, which I believe is unacceptable in ways of evaluating properly. Notes or remarks or comments at the end of the evaluation paper had remarks that were clearly contradicting with each other. This is what I recall of the evaluation paper shown to me. To note that they have brushed these contradiction on the same level as “typo errors”.
• “Leadership” metric was Within Expectation while “Teamwork” was Below Expectation.
• A comment of “Approachable” while “Communication” was Below expectation.
• A comment of “Has his own world and does not look like he is minding the team” while “Leadership” is within expectation.
• Nothing was handwritten in the evaluation paper. It was signed without a name that is not known to me. The signature is not one of those in the employment contract.
• The HR manager seemed reluctant showing me the evaluation paper from the start.
• The HR manager never asked me to sign the evaluation… I wouldn’t anyway since I cant even confirm it was really me they were evaluating.
Day 29, 2 days after I was terminated, to appeal on finding out the truth of my termination, I was able to talk to Operations Manager, then again with the HR Manager, and the Finance manager, to verify why my services were terminated. They have vaguely explained that It was due to the following:
• The incapability of resolving locally the issue of Operation Manager’s the printer when the resolution presented by my colleague and I was to restart the computer which was declined (The print spool service keeps shutting down even after restarting the service). We have opted to have the document be mailed out to a PC that was working with no issues. This resolution was also affirmed by the Senior IT in front of Finance Manager.
• The issue that I have twice timed-in but had to go out of the office to park my vehicle happened twice. I was informed of this and it did not happen afterwards. To note that I have never been late, and the issue was due to the scarcity of parking areas within the workplace. I have never been out of the office for more than 10 minutes on these instances, which was only twice.
• They said that I “don’t communicate well” with my co-IT members, which I found weird since we agree on who must go on leave on a get a Saturday shift, as well as division of work when we are on shift.
• That I don’t know who I am working with on other teams of the company outside Philippines, and tried to trap me when I said I was working with. When I have shown an email proof about the people they said “is not part of the team”, and they suddenly dropped the topic.
• My test evaluation was lower than my colleague.
• The offshore team said I was harder to work with than IT Staff, but I find weird since IT staff never contacted them.
I believe that the main goal of the company was to quickly terminate my services without due process under the following things that I have learned from talking with them:
• Upon joining the company on Day 1, the outline of the work that was discussed with us needed IT personnel. But last Day 29, due to changes in the business, they suddenly just needed 2 IT personnel.
• The lack of proper evaluating process, and just suddenly remembering on the fly anything that can be used against me, professional or not. I believe that they can easily evaluate an Agent with numeric factors like “sales”, but this is clearly different from an IT personnel.
• I took a test evaluation Day 12. The test was mostly not pertinent to evaluating my skills as IT, but was more on management and business. HR Manager said that this was made by team offshore, and was to be checked by them.
o During the time of informing me that my employment was terminated, HR Manager said I got a score of a few points above average. The numbered result was given to me day 26, at the time of my termination.
o If it was to be checked offshore, why was the test corrected with a pen on my employee profile.
o On Day 29, The Operations Manager told me my result was lower than my colleague, but I find it hard to believe when my colleague only started to take the test the very same hour I was told that my employment is terminated.
o Finance Manager told me I failed because passing was 75 “like any school”. Contradictory to what I have heard from HR Manager. Simply claimed it failed even when learning about it just that day.
• They seem to be talking with each other about suddenly checking if they did the proper process. I have confirmed that I have not received any verbal or written agreement of our evaluation metrics, nor have we received a company handbook. IT Staff also confirmed me of this.
• At 3pm of Day 29, I was told my Employment contract was to arrive from the lawyer (They asked it to be “extracted”) before 5pm. I was escorted out of the told to vacate the office and I complied to be escorted out. I stayed in front of the building but did not see anyone enter the building, yet more the office. But at 3:30pm, the assigned lunchtime of the company, I was contacted that my contract has “arrived”.
• The contract of employment was Xerox copied, but the notary stamp was colored, and was dated on Day 2, when I clearly remember that I have signed the contract at Day 4, due to HR Manager having an emergency issue. The secretary told me that the papers were ready but was inside a locked drawer of HR Manager.
• The change in the first page of the contract of employment, without my knowledge. I understood the reason of the change, but I was not informed about it. Hence the lack of signature on the first page of the contract.
The main points that I realized that this incident is clearly illegal termination was due to:
• The lack of my evaluation details. Which I need not only to be justified in my termination, but also for my Professional growth.
• the clear denial of submitting to me my copy of Contract of employment stating that it was unavailable, in contrast with the dates written on the contract as well as with the fact of HR Manager’s absence, as to ascertain how I will be evaluated.
• Changes in the business plan, the manpower needed as discussed with us on Day 1 was 3 IT personnel, and then suddenly changed when I asked about it on Day 29.
• Previous point leads to believe that they used “Did not meet the evaluation of the company” as cover to terminate my services due to just cause of “Redundancy” and avoid the cost of being employed for another month as well as the proper severance pay.
• Letting me sign a quitclaim under duress, because they will hold my payroll due with my last pay.
• Complete lack of knowledge or ignorance of my contributions to the company.
• The clear dismissal of my request for clarification, the vague answers I received last Day 29.
• I was promised to receive the details of my evaluation on Day 36, but this can be completely be against me already as for them to keep face.
In my eyes, the company seems to have tried to terminate my employment since due to unsuccessful projects outside of my responsibilities and that the re-assessment of manpower needed was lowered, terminating me would lower the cost and losses. And that I would just leave it alone since majority, if not all, of the employees they might have terminated before were employees with quantifiable metrics (metrics that can be counted) but not for IT personnel. Since it is common that people would just try to move on and find the next employment as a need. An IT personnel career is not the same, as we are not walk-in applicants and have to wait for job opportunities. I believe we IT personnel take our evaluations seriously and professionally, as we need it to progress on our career.
This message might be too big and contains too much information, but this is basically what I plan to submit to DOLE/NLRC with just the specifics changed to be vague as to comply to secrecy.
I would like to file a complaint to the company and the managers I was employed from for unjust and illegal termination of my employment. I have been employed by the company as a probationary employee for four weeks for the position “IT”. The reason that I think my termination was illegal was due to multiple factors. For the purpose of this story, I will establish the names “HR Manager”, “Operations Manager”, “Finance Manager”, “Senior IT” and “IT Staff”. To note that these are not their positions per say, The company is so broken (and new from what I heard) that they have really not clearly stated their positions, but these is what I see what they do. Operations Manager is basically top brass and not local, Finance Manager has some clout and I see her as 2nd in charge, and HR Manager is basically the front facing manager of the company. Senior IT is the only IT personnel they have before me, and IT Staff was hired at the same time as me with the same position. I will also address the dates from Day 1 to Day X (I posted this today which is Day 30, I was terminated Day 26) as I want to hide the dates that occurred. Do keep note that I am only hiding specifics by replacing them to something less traceable.
It is understood that as a probationary employee, the Company has the right to hire whom they want. But as part of the labor code, a probationary employee can only be terminated under just cause or if the probationary employee fails to meet the evaluation of the employer. The evaluation metrics of the company was not made known to me. And when I talked to IT Staff, he has confirmed that there were no evaluation metrics that was discussed with us during contract signing, Day 4, until the time I was terminated. I was left with a quitclaim and my severance pay for the date range of Day 10 to Day 26, together with the previous cutoff’s tax and other deductions because they claim that they have not submitted it to the government offices since they process it one month late. I offered that I will not take the quitclaim and the last pay so to talk more about the evaluation the next working day, but the secretary has told me that I “wont be able to get the money” at all if I don’t take it now, and they wont release my payroll for the cutoff for the second half of that month. Clearly the quitclaim was signed under duress. At this point, I requested for a copy of the Employment Contract that I signed, and was declined to the reason that the document was still being notarized. I requested for this document for the sole purpose of trying to validate what were the evaluation metrics.
Also to note the fact that there was no feedback of my performance during my time until they have verbally told me that my employment was terminated, and that the evaluation paper that was shown to me was clearly lacking in information of my actual evaluation.
I have not been given a copy, nor was asked to sign a copy of the evaluation, but here are the details I recall of the evaluation which made me believe that the evaluation paper was invalid. The basic build of the evaluation paper had a metrics with explanation of what the metrics hold, and were graded: Above Expectation, Within Expectation, Below Expectation, Unacceptable and Not Applicable. The expected space for specifying the exact instance of the grading were all left blank, which I believe is unacceptable in ways of evaluating properly. Notes or remarks or comments at the end of the evaluation paper had remarks that were clearly contradicting with each other. This is what I recall of the evaluation paper shown to me. To note that they have brushed these contradiction on the same level as “typo errors”.
• “Leadership” metric was Within Expectation while “Teamwork” was Below Expectation.
• A comment of “Approachable” while “Communication” was Below expectation.
• A comment of “Has his own world and does not look like he is minding the team” while “Leadership” is within expectation.
• Nothing was handwritten in the evaluation paper. It was signed without a name that is not known to me. The signature is not one of those in the employment contract.
• The HR manager seemed reluctant showing me the evaluation paper from the start.
• The HR manager never asked me to sign the evaluation… I wouldn’t anyway since I cant even confirm it was really me they were evaluating.
Day 29, 2 days after I was terminated, to appeal on finding out the truth of my termination, I was able to talk to Operations Manager, then again with the HR Manager, and the Finance manager, to verify why my services were terminated. They have vaguely explained that It was due to the following:
• The incapability of resolving locally the issue of Operation Manager’s the printer when the resolution presented by my colleague and I was to restart the computer which was declined (The print spool service keeps shutting down even after restarting the service). We have opted to have the document be mailed out to a PC that was working with no issues. This resolution was also affirmed by the Senior IT in front of Finance Manager.
• The issue that I have twice timed-in but had to go out of the office to park my vehicle happened twice. I was informed of this and it did not happen afterwards. To note that I have never been late, and the issue was due to the scarcity of parking areas within the workplace. I have never been out of the office for more than 10 minutes on these instances, which was only twice.
• They said that I “don’t communicate well” with my co-IT members, which I found weird since we agree on who must go on leave on a get a Saturday shift, as well as division of work when we are on shift.
• That I don’t know who I am working with on other teams of the company outside Philippines, and tried to trap me when I said I was working with. When I have shown an email proof about the people they said “is not part of the team”, and they suddenly dropped the topic.
• My test evaluation was lower than my colleague.
• The offshore team said I was harder to work with than IT Staff, but I find weird since IT staff never contacted them.
I believe that the main goal of the company was to quickly terminate my services without due process under the following things that I have learned from talking with them:
• Upon joining the company on Day 1, the outline of the work that was discussed with us needed IT personnel. But last Day 29, due to changes in the business, they suddenly just needed 2 IT personnel.
• The lack of proper evaluating process, and just suddenly remembering on the fly anything that can be used against me, professional or not. I believe that they can easily evaluate an Agent with numeric factors like “sales”, but this is clearly different from an IT personnel.
• I took a test evaluation Day 12. The test was mostly not pertinent to evaluating my skills as IT, but was more on management and business. HR Manager said that this was made by team offshore, and was to be checked by them.
o During the time of informing me that my employment was terminated, HR Manager said I got a score of a few points above average. The numbered result was given to me day 26, at the time of my termination.
o If it was to be checked offshore, why was the test corrected with a pen on my employee profile.
o On Day 29, The Operations Manager told me my result was lower than my colleague, but I find it hard to believe when my colleague only started to take the test the very same hour I was told that my employment is terminated.
o Finance Manager told me I failed because passing was 75 “like any school”. Contradictory to what I have heard from HR Manager. Simply claimed it failed even when learning about it just that day.
• They seem to be talking with each other about suddenly checking if they did the proper process. I have confirmed that I have not received any verbal or written agreement of our evaluation metrics, nor have we received a company handbook. IT Staff also confirmed me of this.
• At 3pm of Day 29, I was told my Employment contract was to arrive from the lawyer (They asked it to be “extracted”) before 5pm. I was escorted out of the told to vacate the office and I complied to be escorted out. I stayed in front of the building but did not see anyone enter the building, yet more the office. But at 3:30pm, the assigned lunchtime of the company, I was contacted that my contract has “arrived”.
• The contract of employment was Xerox copied, but the notary stamp was colored, and was dated on Day 2, when I clearly remember that I have signed the contract at Day 4, due to HR Manager having an emergency issue. The secretary told me that the papers were ready but was inside a locked drawer of HR Manager.
• The change in the first page of the contract of employment, without my knowledge. I understood the reason of the change, but I was not informed about it. Hence the lack of signature on the first page of the contract.
The main points that I realized that this incident is clearly illegal termination was due to:
• The lack of my evaluation details. Which I need not only to be justified in my termination, but also for my Professional growth.
• the clear denial of submitting to me my copy of Contract of employment stating that it was unavailable, in contrast with the dates written on the contract as well as with the fact of HR Manager’s absence, as to ascertain how I will be evaluated.
• Changes in the business plan, the manpower needed as discussed with us on Day 1 was 3 IT personnel, and then suddenly changed when I asked about it on Day 29.
• Previous point leads to believe that they used “Did not meet the evaluation of the company” as cover to terminate my services due to just cause of “Redundancy” and avoid the cost of being employed for another month as well as the proper severance pay.
• Letting me sign a quitclaim under duress, because they will hold my payroll due with my last pay.
• Complete lack of knowledge or ignorance of my contributions to the company.
• The clear dismissal of my request for clarification, the vague answers I received last Day 29.
• I was promised to receive the details of my evaluation on Day 36, but this can be completely be against me already as for them to keep face.
In my eyes, the company seems to have tried to terminate my employment since due to unsuccessful projects outside of my responsibilities and that the re-assessment of manpower needed was lowered, terminating me would lower the cost and losses. And that I would just leave it alone since majority, if not all, of the employees they might have terminated before were employees with quantifiable metrics (metrics that can be counted) but not for IT personnel. Since it is common that people would just try to move on and find the next employment as a need. An IT personnel career is not the same, as we are not walk-in applicants and have to wait for job opportunities. I believe we IT personnel take our evaluations seriously and professionally, as we need it to progress on our career.
