Goodwill payment

Dear Atty. Angela,

I applied in a multinational company which offered a general manager position, with a lucrative salary offer. With this, I accepted the job offer, signed it, and tendered my resignation with my current employer. But before my starting date, the company informed me that the position was abolished due to a global restructuring without any explanation and offered my one-month salary as a goodwill payment. Is this legal? Can I file an illegal dismissal case against the company?

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Dear Gio,

Yes, you could file an illegal dismissal case against the company as you are considered its employee upon signing the job offer. Likewise, it failed to prove that your termination from service was due to a valid redundancy program.

In the case of Aragones v. Alltech Biotechnology Corporation, G.R. No. 251736 (2025) the Supreme Court ruled that the employment contract was perfected as soon as Aragones signed the job offer. The fact that his start date was still three months away did not mean there was no employer-employee relationship. The delay merely postponed their obligations —Aragones to report for work, and Alltech to pay his salary. Thus, when Alltech withdrew the offer before his start date, the employer-employee relationship had already been established.

Also, to prove a legitimate redundancy program, the SC emphasized that employers must provide solid evidence to justify terminating the services of an employee due to redundancy:

“It is not enough for a company to merely declare redundancy; it must produce adequate proof of such redundancy to justify the dismissal of the affected employees, such as but not limited to the new staffing pattern, feasibility studies/proposal, on the viability of the newly created positions, job description, and the approval by the management of the restructuring.”

In your case, should you no longer intend to be reinstated, you shall be legally entitled to the payment of full backwages and separation pay, covering the period from your intended start date in the company until the finality of the SC’s Decision.

Atty. Angela Antonio