Court of Appeals rules truant workers may be fired

Ruling against their petition, the CA said the employees’ “intentional and willful violation of company rules showed their utter disregard of their work and their employer’s interest”. (Photo By Ramon FVelasquez – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA – The Court of Appeals has upheld employers’ right to terminate employees who deliberately fail to show up for work.

In an 11-page decision dated October 12 and made public Wednesday, the appellate court’s Special Eight Division through Associate Justice Ramon R. Garcia upheld the decision of the labor arbiter and dismissed the complaint for illegal dismissal filed by employees Tirso Singamohon Lagarde and Erwin Francisco.

The two had sued their former employer, International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) and its chairman and chief executive officer Enrique Razon, in their labor case.

The court noted that Lagarde incurred 19 absences from December 2015 to March 2016 and failed to advise the management about his absences.

Despite being given a second chance, he incurred eight unauthorized absences from September to October 2016.

Similarly, Francisco incurred a total of 12 unauthorized absences from November 2016 to January 2017.

Ruling against their petition, the CA said the employees’ “intentional and willful violation of company rules showed their utter disregard of their work and their employer’s interest”.

“There can be no good faith in intentionally and habitually incurring unauthorized and prolonged absences. It bears stressing that petitioners’ absences were not isolated incidents but manifested a pattern of habituality,” the court said.

The tribunal reiterated precedents “that habitual absenteeism without leave constitutes gross negligence and is sufficient to justify termination of an employee”.

Associate Justices Marie Christine Azcarraga-Jacob and Florencio M. Mamauag,Jr. concurred in the decision.