DOLE’s Labor Advisory 06 s. of 2020 mandate private companies to release the final pay of separated employees, whether resigned or terminated, in 30 days. In the same advisory, DOLE advised companies to release employees’ certificate of employment, 3 days after receiving the request.
Gaano katagal niyong nakukuha ang jnyo g certificate of employment? Ayon sa Labor Advisory No. 06, "The employer shall…
Posted by National Wages and Productivity Commission on Monday, February 3, 2020
Finally!
The Direct Manager and the Accounting and/or Payroll will no longer have an excuse to delay the process of the clearance and final pay of separated employees. Likewise, weaponizing the Certificate of Employment (COE) will be reduced if not eliminated.
Before this advisory. R/F employees who are expecting roughly P 3,000 to 6,000 worth of final pay will have to wait 60 to 90 days just to get their final pay. Employees, likewise, are being threatened not to be given COEs if they will AWOL or not agree to the extension of employment until a replacement is found.
These injustice are commonly experienced by R/F employees after they are resigned, terminated or contract is ended.
However
The timeline given by DOLE may be too tight for employees who have greater responsibilities. Those occupying positions of trust and confidence, or those whose accountabilities observe cycles and cut-offs. It may take 30 days before all accountabilities with monetary components (ex. billing cycle of post-paid mobile, in-house credit facilities for retail companies) can be factored in. A 45 to 60 days timeline is more realistic.
Likewise
Appropriate attention (and action) needs to be given to employees who left the company in bad faith. These employees are those who
In these situations. the employer have the right to withhold the financial equivalent of employees accountability
G.R. No. 202961 February 4, 2015
“The Civil Code provides that the employer is authorized to withhold wages for debts due:
Article 1706. Withholding of the wages, except for a debt due, shall not be made by the employer.
“Debt” in this case refers to any obligation due from the employee to the employer. It includes any accountability that the employee may have to the employer. There is no reason to limit its scope to uniforms and equipment, as petitioners would argue.”
But employer might be at the disadvantage because civil liability is not a good deterrent to some ex-employees who do not mind the risk. The corresponding consequence to them is bearable.
And…
Some HR professionals are expecting difficulty in the implementation of this advisory because it failed to factor in the processing of clearance. Could have been better, they said, ‘if 30 days will start after the completion of clearance’.
My take on this is for companies to conceptualize or adopt a policy that will ensure clearance, computation, and payout will be completed in 30 days.
It may also help if the policy can clarify when a clearance should be processed (during rendering or after separation) and by whom (concerned employee, hr, or accounting/payroll). What to do in situations when an employee is not cooperating in the clearance process. And the steps required by law to proceed deducting from the employee’s final pay the monetary equivalent of the uncleared accountabilities.
You can download your copy of LA 06 s.2020 at DOLE website.
What is your take in this advisory, do you think the 30 days timeline is doable?
Hi po, I resigned almost 4 months na po sa previous employer ko. No clearance, no final pay po ang policy. I am cleared na po sa lahat department, at isa na lang ang kulang which is immediate supervisor clearance. Ayaw pa daw po pirmahan dahil madami pa daw aayusin na papers or filing sa pwesto ko, yan po sinasabi ng supervisort ko sa ibang tao pero di ako sinasabihan. So kami ng HR panay follow up, dahil yun na lang ang kulang. Ano po bang pwdeng gawin?
what is your job title, I want to understand why ganun katagal
Hello Sir! I have a question. Employee is resigning and only wants to render 30 days despite signing an Employment Contract that states 90 days since she’s an Officer-In-Charge. Company said okay to the 30 days since she hasn’t been performing these past few months due to personal problems. She just needs to do her turnover. However, we are now finding a lot of discrepancies in the store that she handles (missing items that amount to thousands). With this, is company allowed to withhold her final pay until we finish the investigation? Or are we still obligated to the 30… Read more »
Is she still on-board when you discover the discrepacy?
Yes, she is. She is currently rendering until end of the month.
you can issue an NTE and hold acceptance of resignation pending resolution of the case
What if she’s adamant that she will only render 30 days? We’re anticipating that even if we don’t accept her resignation, she will just stop reporting to work once the 30 days are up.
Can we still hold her final pay then?
Ensure that NTE was duly acknowledged and signed by employee that covers both the administrative (sanction on code of conduct), but and retributive (payment for losses, breakages) after proven guilty.