Dear Atty. Kathy,

My daughter, a Team Leader in a call center, is having a baby with her boyfriend. They are both single and work in the same company, but in different branch offices. She asked for my advice because after she reported her pregnancy to the company, she received a notice to explain from the HR Department of their company, charging her with serious misconduct under the Labor Code, since she is having a baby outside of marriage. Is this enough ground to dismiss my daughter? According to my daughter she has good performance ratings since the company employed her five years ago, and she was even recently promoted as Team Leader. Can these factors be considered so that she will not be dismissed?

Jane

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Dear Jane,

According to the Supreme Court, misconduct is defined as improper or wrong conduct. It is the transgression of some established or definite rule of action, a forbidden act, a dereliction of duty, willful in character, and implies wrongful intent and not mere error of judgment. To be serious, the misconduct must be of such grave or aggravated character and not merely trivial and unimportant; it must be connected with the employee’s work to constitute just cause for separation.

Therefore, for your daughter to be validly dismissed on the ground of serious misconduct, she must have committed misconduct or an improper or wrong conduct; and the misconduct or improper behavior is: (1) serious; (2) relates to the performance of her duties; and (3) shows that your daughter has become unfit to continue working for their company.

Based on your narration, it appears that both your daughter and her boyfriend have no legal impediments to marry. There is also no showing that having a child outside of marriage relates to the performance of your daughter’s duties as a Team Leader. It also appears that your daughter has not become unfit to continue working for the company, since she has a good performance record and was event recently promoted.

Thus, subject to the company being able to show that your daughter violated other rules or policies meriting the termination of her employment, and/or that your daughter’s situation affected her performance of her duties as a Team Leader and that she has become unfit to continue working for the company, your daughter did not commit any misconduct, serious or otherwise, that would justify her dismissal based on serious misconduct.

(Zaida R. Inocente versus St. Vincent Foundation for Children and Aging Inc., et al., G.R. No. 202621, 22 June 2016)

Atty. Kathy Larios