Bill regulates posting of termination notices

Two congressmen want to regulate the practice of employers of posting notices of termination of employment of former employees in newspapers, social media and other public information venues.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles and his younger brother, PBA partylist Rep. Jericho Jonas Nograles, said every employer, in publishing notices of termination of employment, must observe good faith, act with fairness, and respect the dignity of former workers.

“While companies have the right to protect themselves from dishonest former employees and warn the public against dealing with them, the exercise of that right is also open to abuse. An employee who resigns from work due to legitimate reasons may find himself or herself on the receiving end of a vindictive act of the employer by having a notice of his or her severance from employment made public, which might subsequently become inimical to his or her future employment opportunities,” the older Nograles said.

An employee’s separation “might be due to an unjust act or a misjudgment on the employer’s part which when made public will surely cause irreparable damage to the innocent employee,” the chairman of the influential House Committee on Appropriations said.

Jericho Jonas said the legal parameters of permissible and non-permissible notices of termination of employment must be defined.

“The right of companies to be protected against harm from unscrupulous employees, and the right of workers to preserve their reputation against any undue aspersion from their former employers must be balanced,” he said.

“When corporate interests are prejudiced, the company still has the resources to compensate for the loss while ordinary workers have only their character and reputation to rely on,” he added.

The Nograleses are pushing for the approval of their House Bill 1353 which provides that employers can only publish notices of termination of employment if the former employee committed serious dishonesty, grave misconduct, falsification of documents, conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude, and similar acts.

Under the proposed act, erring employers will pay the aggrieved former employee damages of up to 150,000.