Republic of the Philippines

PRESIDENT RAMON MAGSAYSAY STATE UNIVERSITY

Iba, Zambales
GRADUATE STUDIES

Reporters : JOY ZENITH F. MACALMA

: MAILYN D. DELA CRUZ
Course : Doctor of Education, Major in Educational Management
Subject : Staff Personnel Administration of School System (EDMA
609)
Professor : DR. EMMA VENTURA

EMPLOYMENT CONTINUITY AND JUSTICE

Employment is a relationship between two parties, usually based on a contract where work is
paid for, where one party, which may be a corporation, for profit, not-for-profit organization, co-
operative or other entity is the employer and the other is the employee. Employees work in return
for payment, which may be in the form of an hourly wage, by piecework or an annual salary,
depending on the type of work an employee does or which sector she or he is working in.
Employees in some fields or sectors may receive gratuities, bonus payment or stock options. In
some types of employment, employees may receive benefits in addition to payment. Benefits can
include health insurance, housing, disability insurance or use of a gym. Employment is typically
governed by employment laws, regulations or legal contracts.

The Labor policy in the Philippines is specified mainly by the country’s Labor Code of the
Philippines and through other labor laws. They cover Filipinos who belong to the labor force and
to some extent, as well as overseas workers. They aim to address Filipino workers’ legal rights
and their limitations with regard to the hiring process, working conditions, benefits,
policymaking on labor within the company, activities, and relations with employees.
Regulation of the employment relationship

Written employment contract

The usual provisions in an employment contract will include details covering:

 Names of the parties.

 Job position and status.

 Job description.

 Pay.

 Benefits.

 Intellectual property provisions.

 Confidentiality clauses.

Continuous periods of employment

Statutory rights created

A casual employee who has worked for at least one year (whether continuously or not) becomes
a regular employee, but only with respect to the activity in which he is employed and his
employment will continue while that activity exists.

With regard to probationary employees, a probationary employee who is allowed to continue

working beyond the probationary period ceases to be a probationary employee and becomes a
regular employee. The employer and employee can also validly agree to extend the probationary
period.

Consequences of a transfer of employee

In the absence of any express provision to the contrary, when an employee is transferred to a new
entity, the employee does not retain their period of continuous employment. Unless there is an
express provision that an employee's tenure with the previous employer will be continued when
he is transferred to a new entity, the employee's period of employment will begin anew.

Termination of Employment

What is the right to security of tenure?

The right to security of tenure means that a regular employee shall remain employed unless his
or her services are terminated for just or authorized cause and after observance of procedural due
process.
May an employer dismiss an employee? What are the grounds?

Yes. An employer may dismiss an employee on the following just causes:

a) serious misconduct;

b) willful disobedience;

c) gross and habitual neglect of duty;

d) fraud or breach of trust;

e) commission of a crime or offense against the employer, his family or representative;

f) other similar causes.

On what grounds may an employee question his or her dismissal?

An employee may question his or her dismissal based on substantive or procedural grounds.

The substantive aspect pertains to the absence of a just or authorized cause supporting the
dismissal.

The procedural aspect refers to the failure of the employer to give the employee the opportunity
to explain his or her side.

What is reinstatement?

Reinstatement means restoration of the employee to the position from which he or she has been
unjustly removed. Reinstatement without loss of seniority rights means that the employee, upon
reinstatement, should be treated in matter involving seniority and continuity of employment as
though he or she had not been dismissed from work. When a Labor Arbiter rules for an illegal
dismissal, reinstatement is immediately executory even pending appeal by the employer (Article
223 of the Labor Code, as amended).

What is separation pay?

In termination for authorized causes, separation pay is the amount given to an employee
terminated due to installation of labor-saving devices, redundancy, retrenchment, closure or
cessation of business or incurable disease.

Separation pay may also be granted to an illegally dismissed employee in lieu of reinstatement.

When an employee resigned voluntarily, is he or she entitled to separation pay?

No. An employee is not entitled to separation pay when he or she resigns voluntarily, unless it is
a company practice or provided in the CBA (Hanford Philippines Inc. vs. Shirley Joseph, 454
SCRA 786, March 31, 2005).

Are quitclaims valid?

Yes, provided that these are voluntarily signed and the consideration is reasonable and is not
against the law or public policy. (More Maritime Agencies vs. NLRC, 307 SCRA 189)

Quitclaims entered into by union officers and some members do not bind those who did not sign
it (Liana’s Supermarket vs. NLRC, 257 SCRA 186).

ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE
Justice or fairness refers to the idea that an action or decision is morally right, which may be
defined according to ethics, religion, fairness, equity, or law. People are naturally attentive to the
justice of events and situations in their everyday lives, across a variety of contexts (Tabibnia,
Satpute, & Lieberman, 2008).

Greenberg (1987) introduced the concept of organizational justice with regard to how an
employee judges the behaviour of the organization and the employee's resulting attitude and
behaviour. (e.g., if a firm makes redundant half of the workers, an employee may feel a sense of
injustice with a resulting change in attitude and

Overview
Organizational justice is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct. The four proposed
components are distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice. Research also
suggests the importance of affect and emotion in the appraisal of the fairness of a situation as
well as one's behavioral and attitudinal reactions to the situation (e.g., Barsky, Kaplan, & Beal,
2011). Much literature in the industrial/organizational psychology field has examined
organizational justice as well as the associated outcomes. Perceptions of justice influence many
key organizational outcomes such as motivation (Latham & Pinder, 2005) and job satisfaction
(Al-Zu'bi, 2010).

Roots in equity theory

The idea of organizational justice stems from equity theory (Adams, 1963, 1965), which posits
that judgments of equity and inequity are derived from comparisons between one's self and
others based on inputs and outcomes. Inputs refer to what a person perceives to contribute (e.g.,
knowledge and effort) while outcomes are what an individual perceives to get out of an exchange
relationship (e.g., pay and recognition). Comparison points against which these inputs and
outcomes are judged may be internal (one's self at an earlier time) or external (other individuals).

Corporate social responsibility

A concept related to organizational justice is corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Organizational justice generally refers to perceptions of fairness in treatment of individuals
internal to that organization while corporate social responsibility focuses on the fairness of
treatment of entities external to the organization. Corporate social responsibility refers to a
mechanism by which businesses monitor and regulate their performance in line with moral and
societal standards such that it has positive influences on all of its stakeholders (Carroll, 1999).
Thus, CSR involves organizations going above and beyond what is moral or ethical and
behaving in ways that benefit members of society in general. It has been proposed that an
employee's perceptions of their organization's level of corporate social responsibility can impact
that individual's own attitudes and perceptions of justice even if they are not the victim of unfair
acts (Rupp et al., 2006).

Types

Distributive justice is conceptualized as the fairness associated with decision outcomes and
distribution of resources. The outcomes or resources distributed may be tangible (e.g., pay) or
intangible (e.g., praise). Perceptions of distributive justice can be fostered when outcomes are
perceived to be equally applied (Adams, 1965).

Procedural justice is defined as the fairness of the processes that lead to outcomes. When
individuals feel that they have a voice in the process or that the process involves characteristics
such as consistency, accuracy, ethicality, and lack of bias then procedural justice is enhanced
(Leventhal, 1980).

Interactional justice refers to the treatment that an individual receives as decisions are made
and can be promoted by providing explanations for decisions and delivering the news with
sensitivity and respect (Bies & Moag, 1986). A construct validation study by Colquitt (2001)
suggests that interactional justice should be broken into two components: interpersonal and
informational justice. Interpersonal justice refers to perceptions of respect and propriety in
one's treatment while informational justice relates to the adequacy of the explanations given in
terms of their timeliness, specificity, and truthfulness.
Antecedents of perceptions

Employee participation
One antecedent to perceptions of organizational justice is the extent to which employees feel that
they are involved in decision-making or other organizational procedures. Higher levels of justice
are perceived when employees feel that they have input in processes than when employees do
not perceive that they have the opportunity to participate (Greenberg & Folger, 1983; Bies &
Shapiro, 1988).

Communication
A second antecedent to organizational justice perceptions is organizational communication with
employees. The quality of communication by an organization or manager can improve justice
perceptions by improving employee perceptions of manager trustworthiness and also by reducing
feelings of uncertainty (Kernan & Hanges, 2002).

Justice climate
Perceptions of organizational justice can be influenced by others, such as co-workers and team
members. Recent research suggests that team level perceptions of justice form what is called a
'justice climate' which can impact individuals' own views of justice (Li & Cropanzano, 2009).
Employees working within a team may share their perceptions with one another which can lead
to a shared interpretation of the fairness of events (Roberson & Colquitt, 2005).

Outcomes of perceptions
Employees' perceptions of injustice within the organization can result in a myriad of outcomes
both positive and negative. Outcomes are affected by perceptions of organizational justice as a
whole or by different factors of organizational justice. Commonly cited outcomes affected by
organizational justice include trust, performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment,
organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs),
absenteeism, turnover, and emotional exhaustion.
Trust
The relationship between trust and organizational justice perceptions is based on reciprocity.
Trust in the organization is built from the employee's belief that since current organizational
decisions are fair, future organizational decisions will be fair. The continuance of employee trust
in the organization and the organization continuing to meet the employee's expectations of
fairness creates the reciprocal relationship between trust and organizational justice (DeConick,
2010).
Performance
The impact of organizational justice perceptions on performance is believed to stem from equity
theory. This would suggest that when people perceive injustice they seek to restore justice.

Job satisfaction and organizational commitment

Job satisfaction was found to be positively associated with overall perceptions of organizational
justice such that greater perceived injustice results in lower levels of job satisfaction and greater
perceptions of justice result in higher levels of job satisfaction (Al-Zu'bi, 2010). Additionally,
organizational commitment is related to perceptions of procedural justice such that greater
perceived injustice results in diminished commitment while greater perceived justice results in
increases commitment to the organization (DeConick, 2010; Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001).
Organizational citizenship behavior
Organizational citizenship behaviors are actions that employees take to support the organization
that go above and beyond the scope of their job description. As organizational actions and
decisions are perceived as more just, employees are more likely to engage in OCBs.

Counterproductive work behaviors

Counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) are "intentional behaviors on the part of an
organizational member viewed by the organization as contrary to their legitimate interests"
(Gruys and Sackett, 2003, p. 30).

Absenteeism and withdrawal

Absenteeism, or non-attendance, is another outcome of perceived injustice related to equity
theory (Johns, 2001). Failure to receive a promotion is an example of a situation in which
feelings of injustice may result in an employee being absent from work without reason.

Emotional exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion, which related to employee health and burnout, is related to overall
organizational justice perceptions. As perceptions of justice increase employee health increases
and burnout decreases (Liljegren & Ekberg, 2009).

Health

According to Schunck et al., physical health is related to an employee's perception of distributive

justice. As the employee's perception of earnings justice decreases, the physical health of the
employee decreases.

Turnover Intention
Although all three dimensions of organizational justice may play a role in an employee’s
intention to exit an organization, interactional and distributive justice are more predictive of
turnover intention than procedural justice (Thomas & Nagalingappa, 2012).

RESOURCES:

 Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

 https://content.next.westlaw.com/Document/Ic736e092ad2311e498db8b09b4f043e0/Vie
w/FullText.html?
contextData=(sc.Default)&transitionType=Default&firstPage=true&bhcp=
 https://blr.dole.gov.ph/2014/12/11/termination-of-employment/
 http://www.chanrobles.com/legal4labor6.htm
 https://www.bakermckenzie.com/-/media/files/insight/publications/2016/01/guide-to-
philippine-employment/qrg_philippines_employmentlaw_jan16.pdf?la=en
 https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/continuous-employment-and-breaks-work