Dear Atty. Vlad,

I am a fastfood chain owner. When I visited one of our branches in Quezon City, the manager, was absent. When I met with the supervisors to ask them about the performance of the branch manager, the feedback was very negative. To support what the supervisors told me, I asked them to provide me with documents and to execute affidavits to support their claims against the manager. Subsequently, after the supervisors provided me with the required documents, I issued a notice to explain to the branch manager. Because of this, the manager confronted me and told me that the notice to explain I issued was a form of harassment and his working environment was made hostile. Is the branch manager correct?

Mr. Herrera

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Dear Mr. Herrera,

From the facts that you told me, you did not immediately issue the notice to explain. In fact, you asked the supervisors of the branch to execute affidavits and to provide you with supporting documents. As such, your branch manager cannot claim that his working environment became hostile.

In the case of Uniwide Sales Warehouse Club vs NLRC and Amalia P. Kawada, G.R. 154503, 29 February 2008, the Supreme Court held:
"The Court finds that private respondent's allegation of harassment is a specious statement which contains nothing but empty imputation of a fact that could hardly be given any evidentiary weight by this Court. Private respondent's bare allegations of constructive dismissal, when uncorroborated by the evidence on record, cannot be given credence."

"The sending of several memoranda addressed to a managerial or supervisory employee concerning various violations of company rules and regulations, committed on different occasions, are not unusual. The alleged February to June 1998 series of memoranda given by petitioners to private respondent asking the latter to explain the alleged irregular acts should not be construed as a form of harassment, but merely an exercise of management's prerogative to discipline its employees."

From the foregoing, the authority to determine the existence of any cause before imposing any disciplinary action belongs to the employer.
Instead of being penalized outright, the branch manager was afforded his right to due process through the notice to explain. The issuance of a notice to explain is not an end in itself, but merely an opportunity given to employees to clear their names in case the charges are unfounded.