Habitual absenteeism

Dear Atty. Angela,

I am a store owner and I have an employee who is always absent sometimes up to 3 days straight. He does not file his leaves though.

I have given him several reminders and notices but he would just apologize then after a few weeks, will repeat the same offense.

His absences are already affecting the store operations and causing me great distress. Can I dismiss him if he still continues with his unauthorized absences? Clarisse

Dear Clarisse,

Yes, repeated and continuous AWOL violation of an employee is tantamount to gross negligence or habitual neglect of duty that could be basis of dismissal.

As held in the recent case of Nofies v. Comodo Security Philippines Inc., G.R. 257728 (28 March 2022), the Supreme Court expressed that habitual absenteeism is a form of neglect of duty that justified dismissal from employment:

“Petitioner’s habitual tardiness and absenteeism were forms of neglect of duty which violated the company’s rules and accordingly, justified her termination from employment. ‘[G]ross neglect of duty becomes serious in character due to frequency of instances x x x. Indeed, there can be no good faith in intentionally and habitually incurring unexcusable absences.’ Here, petitioner failed to advance any acceptable reasons to explain her many absences which evince a clear disregard of her duties as an employee, especially since the labor tribunal and the CA unanimously found that petitioner failed to prove her allegation that she was subjected to unbearable working conditions.”

In Villanueva v. Ganco Resort and Recreation Inc., G.R. 227175 (8 January 2020), the Supreme Court also expressed that gross negligence is the absence or failure to exercise diligence or entire absence of care. It is the disregard of consequences without exerting effort to avoid them.

In your case, the employee who continuously absents himself display gross negligence and lack of care on his work. As such, he may be dismissed from work after undergoing due process procedure in your company. Atty. Angela Antonio