Dear Atty. Angela,

I am a faculty member of a Catholic educational institution for three years now. I am currently living in with my boyfriend and we have plans of getting married by next year. We found out that I am pregnant so I informed my immediate supervisor about this. The news reached the school's top management and I was forced to resign since they told me my pregnancy out of wedlock constitutes conduct unbecoming of an employee; that I am not worthy to be an example to my students as I engaged in pre-marital sex. When I refused to resign, I was dismissed based on serious misconduct and unbecoming of an employee of a Catholic school. Is this legal? Please help.

Monica

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Dear Monica,

Your dismissal based on pregnancy out of wedlock when your partner does not have a legal impediment to marrying you is illegal.

In a decided case, Leus v. St. Scholastica's College Westgrove, G.R. 187226 (2015), the Supreme Court held that the petitioner, in this case, did not commit a disgraceful or immoral conduct.

It bears stressing that the petitioner and her boyfriend, at the time they conceived a child, had no legal impediment to marriage. The Court held in Radam, there is no law that penalizes an unmarried mother by reason of her sexual conduct or proscribes the consensual sexual activity between two unmarried persons; that neither does such situation contravene any fundamental state policy enshrined in the Constitution.

While employment in an educational institution where the teachings and doctrines of the Catholic Church, including that on pre-marital sexual relations, are strictly upheld and taught to the students and pregnancy out of wedlock is anathema to the doctrines of the Catholic Church, this is not considered as disgraceful or immoral within the contemplation of the law.

Pre-marital sex between two consenting adults without legal impediment to marrying each other does not fall within the contemplation of "disgraceful or immoral conduct" and "serious misconduct" of the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools and the Labor Code of the Philippines. Thus, your dismissal is illegal and you may file a labor case against the school so you may be reinstated with full back wages.