Dear Atty. Kathy,

I am currently being investigated by my employer, for disclosure to Company X of confidential information of a customer. Company X is one of the insurance providers of my employer’s customers. What happened was I got a call from Company X, asking about the contact information of one of my employer’s customers because they needed to send back some original documents to a customer. I honestly believed that this was simply an intra-office communication not subject to our usual verification processes, since Company X is in charge of our customers’ insurance requirements. However, my employer is saying that this is an unauthorized disclosure of a customer’s confidential information, which is tantamount to serious misconduct, and a ground for my valid dismissal. Does my employer have valid grounds to dismiss me?

Maria

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Dear Maria,

Article 297 of the Labor Code provides that one of the just causes for termination of employment, is serious misconduct. According to Supreme Court cases, misconduct is defined as an improper or wrong conduct. It is a transgression of some established and definite rule of action, a forbidden act, a dereliction of duty, willful in character and implies wrongful intent and not mere error in judgment. To constitute a valid cause for the dismissal within the text and meaning of Article 297 of the Labor Code, the employee’s misconduct must be serious and of such grave and aggravated character and not merely trivial or unimportant. In addition, the misconduct must be related to the performance of the employee’s duties showing him to be unfit to continue working for the employer, and, the offense is a product of a wrongful or perverse attitude on the part of the employee, not from a simple negligence.

Based solely on your narration, you honestly believed that your disclosure to Company X was simply an intra-office communication not subject to the usual verification processes, since Company X is in charge of your employer’s customers’ insurance requirements. Subject to other factors on your disclosure, it appears that your alleged offense was a mere error in judgment and not done with willfulness or wrongful intent, as would merit a finding of serious misconduct. Therefore, your employer does not have valid grounds to dismiss you for serious misconduct.

(CITIGROUP BUSINESS PROCESS SOLUTIONS PTE. LTD. versus RAYMUNDO CORPUZ, G.R. 208738-39, 05 June 2024)

Atty. Kathy Larios