Contract breach

Dear Atty. Kathy,

I accepted and signed a job offer from Company A, where I was required to start reporting for work in six weeks. One of the onboarding requirements was clearance from the former employer. I filed my resignation with my employer then, and was able to get my clearance after four weeks. I went to Company A right away to submit my clearance, but instead of an employment contract, they issued me a letter, which said that they are withdrawing the job offer because the position no longer existed. I complained to the HR Officer but she said they can still withdraw the job offer because we do not have an employment contract yet, since the first day of work is still two weeks away. Is she correct?

Joseph

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Dear Joseph,

The Supreme Court has ruled that a contract is perfected upon the concurrence of the following requisites: (1) the consent of the contracting parties; (2) an object certain, which is the subject matter of the contract; and (3) the cause of the obligation. “Consent” is manifested by the meeting of the offer and the acceptance upon the thing and the cause which are to constitute the contract.

For consent to be valid, the “offer” must be certain, and the “acceptance” must be absolute. A contract is deemed perfected from the time the acceptance is made known to the offeror. Without the offeror’s knowledge of the acceptance, there is no meeting of the minds of the parties, and thus, no real concurrence of offer and acceptance. An employment contract, like any other contract, is perfected at the moment the parties come to agree upon its terms and conditions, and thereafter, concur in the essential elements thereof.

Based on your narration, there is a job offer which you accepted and signed, on the basis of which you were required to start reporting for work in six weeks. Applying the requirements of a contract as mentioned above, there is already an employment contract between you and Company A. It is therefore incorrect of the HR officer to claim that Company A can still withdraw the job offer because there is no employment contract yet, and in view of the general rule that an offer, once accepted, cannot be withdrawn.

(Paolo Landayan Aragones versus Alltech Biotechnology Corporation, et al., G.R. No. 251736, 2 April 2025)

Atty. Kathy Larios