Employment reinstatement

Dear Atty. Kathy,

I won my illegal dismissal case against my employer, Company A. The order of the court was that I should be reinstated to my former position. However, when I tried to report for work, Company A refused to accept me because the HR officer said I had to first submit pre-employment requirements, such as, NBI clearance, police clearance, BIR Form 2316, clearance from former employers, medical exam and fit to work certificate, marriage certificate, children’s and/or parents’ birth certificates, and statutory benefits numbers/registrations/IDs, to create my employee file, before I can be reinstated. However, it will take me several weeks to complete these, and until then, the HR officer said I cannot be. Is this legal?

Justin

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Dear Justin,

The Supreme Court has ruled that prior submission of the required pre-employment documents is not a precondition to the Company’s acceptance of an employee by virtue of a reinstatement order.

According to your narration, the purpose of the submission of the pre-employment requirements is to create your employee file, not for pre-qualification purposes. Therefore, as ruled by the Supreme Court, such pre-employment documents may be submitted even after you have reported and have been accepted back for work, albeit, within a reasonable time, in order not to protract the necessary remittance and reportorial requirements with the appropriate government agencies.

Thus, based solely on the above facts, the Company is not justified in refusing to accept you for reinstatement simply because of the lack of pre-employment requirements.

(Richard M. Libranda versus Ishida Philippines Grating, Inc., et al., G.R. No. 259178, 15 August 2022.)

Atty. Kathy Larios