Labor and employment lawyers for employers, in Cebu City and nationwide.

Status, duties, the standard the work is measured against, compensation, and what happens at the end of probation. Many of the disputes we see turn on a point the contract could have settled in a sentence.

Start with how you will engage people, because that decision determines the documents you need, what you owe, and who carries the obligations. We advise employers based abroad on setting that up and on managing staff once they are in place.

Often it needs work. A policy written for another jurisdiction may be sensible and still not be enforceable under Philippine law, and a rule that cannot be enforced is worse than no rule, because people rely on it. We review handbooks and codes of conduct and tell you which parts hold.

Yes, it can be a ground, and the Labor Code puts the burden of proving that a termination was for a valid or authorized cause on the employer. These cases usually turn on whether the standard was set in writing, whether the shortfall was recorded as it happened, and whether the employee was told and given a real chance to answer.

The Labor Code requires a written notice stating the causes for the termination, and ample opportunity for the employee to be heard and to defend himself, with the assistance of a representative if he wishes. In practice that is run as two notices with a hearing between them, and the record of that process is what a tribunal reads first.

Yes. Redundancy is an authorized cause, which is a different footing from a just cause: it turns on business grounds and on notice, it carries separation pay, and the notices go to the employee and to the Department of Labor and Employment. We will compute what is due in your case, because the formula depends on the cause.

Two awards. The first is full backwages, inclusive of allowances and other benefits or their monetary equivalent, running from the time compensation was withheld to actual reinstatement, so the figure grows while the case runs. The second is reinstatement, without loss of seniority rights and other privileges. Where reinstatement is no longer viable, commonly because relations have become strained, the courts award separation pay of one month’s salary for every year of service instead, on top of the backwages.

Yes. Reviewing contracts, policies, and practice while nothing is contested costs a fraction of what it costs to sort out the same questions after a complaint has been filed, and it is the only time the record can still be corrected.

We agree the scope and the fee in writing before any work starts, so you are not committed to anything while we work out whether we can help. We do not publish a rate card, because an hour of advice before you act and a case that runs through the Commission and on appeal cost very different amounts. Ask us and we will quote for your matter.