Is it OK to fall in love with your boss?
THERE is no law banning an employee from falling in love with her or his boss, and there is also no government policy addressing office romance, so the country’s biggest labor organization threw its support behind love in the workplace on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
For Alan Tanjusay, spokesman of the Associated Labor UnionTrade Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), it is okay for an employee to fall in love with her boss as long as both are single.
The group however called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to come out with guidelines on inter-and intra- office relationships to prevent abusive employers from using romance between officemates or co-workers as an excuse to fire them from their jobs.
Tanjusay said since love has no boundaries, companies or employers should lay down policies that allow workplace romance to bloom.
“The policy on intra-office workplace romance should not be restrictive. The most extreme policy (that employers) can do is transfer an employee to another division or department,” he said.
He added that romantic relationships should not be the cause for dismissal, demotion, transfer, or diminution of wages and benefits.
“Since there is no govern- ment policy governing workplace romance between co- employees or between a rank-andfile employee falling in love with her boss or vice versa, the matter of workplace romance is controlled by management. And some employers use such prerogative to lay off, demote, or transfer their employees,” Tanjusay said.
Because “the law is vague and subject to many interpretations,” the DoLE should issue guidelines and policies on office romance, Tanjusay said.
“Though judicial jurisprudences had always been in favor of complainant workers, the DoLE regulation can help minimize employees and management from strained relations and physical, financial and emotional exasperation of going to the courts for those who felt injustice,” he added.