Dear Atty. Shalie,
I am a guidance counselor at a private school here in our province. There was an incident in the school wherein one of the students suffered serious physical injuries by reason of another student’s act of bullying. The harmful act was witnessed by a number of students who, unfortunately were traumatized and suffered serious mental and emotional issues, as a result of the incident. I was thus, tasked to talk to these students collectively, to be able to help them manage or deal with their trauma. In the course of my talk, which was recorded by some students in their video cameras, I spoke of some things that did not suit well with the parents of these students. My talk with the students became subject of a complaint against me. Hence, I was placed on suspension and pending investigation, I am not allowed to discharge my duties as a counselor. Is it right for them to summarily put me under suspension and do they have cause to dismiss me from my employment?
Ronnie
***
Dear Ronnie,
Under our present labor law and existing rules, the employer has the right to place an employee under preventive suspension “only if his continued employment poses a serious and imminent threat to the life or property of the employer or of his co-workers”. Preventive suspension is not a penalty in itself but merely as a measure to avoid any impediment in the conduct of administrative inquiry. Hence, your employer may justify their act in placing you under suspension, pending the outcome of the investigation relevant to the incident in which you were involved. As for causes to terminate employment, should your employer find just cause or causes, which are enumerated under our existing labor law, to wit: serious misconduct, willful disobedience or insubordination, gross and habitual neglect of duty, fraud or willful breach of trust, loss of confidence, commission of a crime or offense and analogous cases, and your employer was able to establish any of these causes against you, after due process, then they may exercise their right to terminate your employment. Based on your narration, your employer may use loss of trust and confidence as a ground against you, given your position. However, to be a valid cause for dismissal, the same must be based on willful breach of trust and founded on clear and convincingly established facts and not simply based on whims, caprices or arbitrariness. It must come from the voluntary or willful act or some blameworthy act or omission on your part.
Atty. Shalie Lazatin-Obinque