Dismissed on the 6th month

A friend of mine was hired as an AVP of operations last May 9. Today, November 8, at quitting time she was being asked to sign a document, which states that she cannot be made a regular employee of the company. During her probationary period she frequently met and even exceeded expectations and objectives. There were no performance issues during the last 6 months. Today was to be the last day of the 6th month of probationary period. The reason given verbally was that the CEO does not like her. When she challenged this and refused to sign, another company official, the president arrived and tried to talk to her.

After this my friend asked if she is still expected to report tomorrow and the president said yes. However, when she got home she discovered that she had already been denied email access. There was also a text message from the company telling her not to report anymore and that she is to turn over all company documents, etc. I feel she is being unfairly treated. The CEO is telling everyone that they know people (lawyers) from DOLE and NLRC. Maybe they've done this before.

What options are available to her? Thanks for your help.

is her employer a corporation? she should first look at the articles of incorporation because avp is a very high position which may be mentioned in the articles therefore she is a corporate officer, and she cannot file a case at nlrc.

What other options does she have? What protection does she have under the law as a corporate officer? Thank you very much.

if avp is a position stated in the articles, she has to file a complaint in court as an intra-corporation controversy.

The AVP position is just a title and is not declared as a corporate officer's position.

An HR practitioner told me that as bad as this sounds, the company can justify termination without cause. Is he correct? Are there recent rulings supporting this?

if you are not correct about that, any complaint she files in nlrc may be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. be diligent and find out. there is a standard line in articles that avps are considered corporate officers.

did they have a written probationary contract?

proving abuse in assessing probation is very difficult. almost all the cases show that the employer has discretion to assess the performance at the end of the probationary period. perhaps she will have a chance if she can show documents that she was doing well throughout the probationary period.

in connection to this, does this mean that any employee is helpless should the company decide that they dont want to absorb him a day before his contract ends? i mean, even with just one day notice?even for a dept head? and if this is the case, what rights does the employee have? ty