Dear Atty. Kathy,

Employee Y submitted his resignation to our HR Department, to take effect in 30 days. A week after, HR announced a redundancy program affecting Employee Y's position.

Employee Y wrote HR that he is withdrawing his resignation and will participate in the redundancy program instead. When I checked our HR system, I saw that the action on the acceptance of Employee Y's resignation was "pending," hence, no written notice was sent to Employee Y yet accepting his resignation.

Does this mean that Employee Y can still withdraw his resignation even if he has already submitted it?

Ayla

Dear Ayla,

The Supreme Court has ruled that acceptance of a resignation tendered by an employee is necessary to make the resignation effective.

Based on your narration, there was no such acceptance of Employee Y's resignation up to the time he notified HR that he was withdrawing the same, considering as well that the status of the acceptance of said resignation was still pending.

It appears that there was an ineffectual resignation of Employee Y, and that the latter had validly retracted his resignation before it took effect and before Company X accepted the same.

Therefore, Employee Y may still withdraw his resignation letter despite its submission, since said resignation had not yet been accepted by your Company.

(John Roger Niño S. Vergara versus Anz Global Services and Operations Manila Inc., G.R. 250205, 17 February 2021)

Atty. Kathy Larios