Republic of the Philippines

NORTHWEST SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY

Main Campus, Calbayog City

Group 5
Fernandez, Jomer D.
Roa, Jun Syrus C.
Gementiza, Jasper
Cruda, Allan
BSEE 5th YEAR
Hums 3 Work, Values and Ethics
Mr. Ramil Lanuza

Chapter 10
Legal Liability of Workers

Legal Liability of Workers

Perhaps the other most immediate concern of any worker is to know

how and when he could possibly incur legal liability in the course of his
work.

Like any other citizens, workers may subject themselves to legal

prosecution by committing an act or acts that could be an offense against
persons or property (Revised Penal Code, Art. 4).

Breaking the law on the grounds if ignorance will not suffice,

because ignorance of the law would not excuse anyone (Civil Code of the
Philippines, Art. 3). Everyone is presumed to know the law, and this implies
the duty to know the law. The familiar legal maxims, “Everyone is
conclusively presumed to know the law and ignorance of the law excuses
no one” are suggestive that to observe and to avoid infractions of the law
necessarily implies a practically sufficient knowledge of the law.

The punishments, as consequences of breaking the law, are usually

more than enough to make anyone violating the law. Hence, it is for the
personal interest of a worker to have a practical knowledge of the law in
order to avoid violating it.

The Nature of Law

Law is a system of principles and processes promulgated and

strictly enforced by the State to regulate the conduct of its citizens and as a
mean of resolving conflicting interests.

Three General Sources of Law

1. Constitution – the fundamental or the basic law of the land.

2. Legislation (Statutory Laws) – laws enacted by the law-giving body of the
State i.e. State Congress. Any statutory law should observe the provisions
of the Constitution, otherwise, it is unconstitutional and hence loses the
commanding and binding power of a law.
3. Common law – the body of principles that evolves from court decisions.

General Types of Law

Laws govern the relationships of the private individual with

government and with other individuals. There are two general types of law:

1. Public Law – the body of the laws that deals with relationships between
individuals and the government, and the government agencies. An
important segment of the public law is Criminal Law, which deals with the
safety and welfare of an individual, or the protection of public interest.
Public law also includes other numerous regulations i.e. Special laws such
as the Administrative Code, the Labor Code, etc. aimed at enhancing
societal objectives.

2. Private or Civil Law – the body if laws that deals with the relationship of
private individuals. Civil Law covers contract law and tort laws. Contract
law involves the enforcement of agreement among private individuals or
the penalties for failure to observe the agreement. Tort law defines and
enforces rights and responsibilities among private individuals that are not
based on contractual agreements.

Legal Liability

A crime is an act in violence of the public (criminal) law punishable

by fine, or imprisonment, or even death. A criminal act could be considered
either a felony or a misdemeanor, depending on the gravity of the offense.
A felony is a crime against person and property of a serious nature, while a
misdemeanor is an offense of a less serious nature. This section intends to
focus more on the study of concepts concerning felony.

Felonies

Felonies are acts punishable by law and they may be committed not
only by means of deceit, but also by means of fault (Revised Penal Code,
Art. 3). There is deceit when the act is performed with deliberate intent, and
there is fault when the wrongful act results from imprudence, negligence,
lack of foresight, or lack of skill

Deliberate intent, as we have already discussed in Moral

Responsibility, implies the presence of two elements: knowledge and
freedom. Without there two elements, an act or omission could not be
considered a crime.

A person who lacks intelligence or rationality is incapable of

distinguishing good or bad and right or wrong. And any person, who is
unable to make distinction between right or wrong and good or bad, cannot
be made legally and morally liable to his act.

Under the law, a person who is imbecile, or insane, unless he has

acted during a lucid interval, a person under nine years of age, or a person
over nine years of age and under fifteen, unless he has acted with
discernment, is exempted from any criminal liability (Ibid. Art. 12, nos. 1-3).
 Similarly, a person who acts under compulsion of an irresistible
force or who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an equal or
greater injury could not be said to act, or to have acted with deliberate
intent. Hence he could not be made liable for any wrongful act that
proceeds from such lack of freedom, because without compulsion, he
could have acted otherwise.

Criminal liability is also incurred by any person committing felony,

although the wrongful act done be different from that which he intended.
Even if the intention of the act is noble, if it has resulted to the injury or
harm of others, the act is still considered wrongful and the doer of the act
criminally liable.

A crime may be committed by a person alone or it may involve

others who conspired with him. A conspiracy exists when two or more
persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of a felony and
decide to commit it. And there is a proposal when the person who has
decided to commit a felony proposes its execution to some other person or
persons.

Classes of Felonies

There are three types of felonies: consummated, frustrated and

attempted. A felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for
its execution and accomplishment are present. The felony committed by
the perpetuator is consummated if a person has contemplated and
accomplished the killing of another person. A felony is frustrated when the
offender performs all acts of execution, which as a consequence, would
have resulted in a felony. However, felony has not been produced because
of some causes independent of the will of the perpetuator. For instance, a
person who has contemplated and tried to kill another person, but by sheer
luck, his victim has survived, has committed a frustrated felony. A felony is
attempted when the offender does not perform all the acts of execution,
which should produce the felony by reason of some causes or accident
other than his own spontaneous desistance. Thus, a person who has
plotted and tried to kill another person, but by accident he was
successfully prevented from killing his victim, has committed an attempted
felony.

Classification of criminal liability

The law classifies persons criminally liable for felonies into

principals, accomplices and accessories.

Principal

A source of authority; a sum of a debt or obligation producing

interest; the head of a school. In an agency relationship, the principal is the
person who gives authority to another, called an agent, to act on his or her
behalf. In Criminal Law, the principal is the chief actor or perpetrator of a
crime; those who aid, abet, counsel, command, or induce the commission
of a crime may also be principals.
A principal in the first degree is the chief actor or perpetrator of a crime. A
principal in the second degree must be present at the commission of the
criminal act and aid, abet, or encourage the principal in his or her criminal
activity.
Accomplices

A person who knowingly, voluntarily, or intentionally gives

assistance to another in (or in some cases fails to prevent another from)
the commission of a crime. An accomplice is criminally liable to the same
extent as the principal. An accomplice, unlike an accessory, is typically
present when the crime is committed.

Accessory

Aiding or contributing in a secondary way or assisting in or

contributing to as a subordinate.

In Criminal Law, contributing to or aiding in the commission of a

crime. One who, without being present at the commission of an offense,
becomes guilty of such offense, not as a chief actor, but as a participant,
as by command, advice, instigation, or concealment; either before or after
the fact or commission. One who aids, abets, commands, or counsels
another in the commission of a crime.
In common law, an accessory could not be found guilty unless the actual
perpetrator was convicted.

Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability

Under the reverse penal code , five circumstances could affect the
extent of a person's criminal liability.There are justifiying circumstances,
exempting circumstances, mitigating circumstances, aggravating
circumstances,alternative circumstances.

Justifying circumstances

are those wherein the acts of the actor are in accordance with law
and, hence, he incurs no criminal and civil liability. The justifying
circumstances by subject are as follows:

1.) Self-defense

Anyone who acts in defense of his person or rights. (Art. 11, Par. 1)
The scope included self-defense not only of life, but also of rights like
those of chastity, property and honor. It has also been applied to the crime
of libel.
Its elements are:

a. Unlawful aggression

Aggression is considered unlawful when it is unprovoked or

unjustified. There must be real danger to life or personal safety. An
imminent danger of aggression, and not merely imaginary, is sufficient. A
slap on the face is actual unlawful aggression.

b. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it.

The rule “stand ground when in the right” applies when a person is
unlawfully assaulted and if the aggressor is armed with a weapon.
Whether the means employed is reasonable or not it will depend upon the
kind of weapon of the aggressor, his physical condition, character, size
and other circumstances as well as those of the person attacked and the
time and place of the attack.

c. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending

himself.

A person may be justified in causing injury to another in defense of

his property (fencing off the house of the accused) even if there was no
attack against his person. To hold otherwise would render nugatory the
provisions of circumstance No. 1 which recognizes the right of an
individual to defend his rights, one of which is to own and enjoy his
property.

2.) Defense of Relative

Anyone who acts in defense of the person or rights of his spouses,

ascendants, descendants, or legitimate or adopted brothers or sisters, or
of his relatives by affinity in the same degrees, and those by consanguinity
within the fourth civil degree, and in case the provocation was given by the
person attacked, that the one making the defense had no part therein. (Art.
11, Par. 2)

3.) Defense of Stranger

Anyone who acts in defense of the person or rights of a stranger and

that the person defending be not induced by revenge, resentment, or other
evil motive. (Art. 11, Par. 3)

4.) State of Necessity

Any person who, in order to avoid an evil or injury, does an act

which causes damage to another. (Art. 11, Par. 4)
Its requisites are:

a. The evil sought to be avoided actually exists.

b. The injury feared be greater than that done to avoid it.
c. There be no other practical and less harmful means of preventing it.

5.) Fulfillment of duty

Any person who acts in the fulfillment of a duty or in the lawful

exercise of a right or office. (Art. 11, Par. 5) The injury caused or the
offense committed is the necessary consequence of the due performance
of such right or office.

6.) Obedience to superior order

Any person who acts in obedience to an order issued by a superior

for some lawful purpose. (Art. 11, Par. 6)

Exempting Circumstances

exempting circumstances allow a person to escape from criminal

liability by way of exception. In all exempting circumstances, there is a
question of the presence and quality of intent. Such will determine the
validity of an exempting circumstance put up as a defense. The following
are the exempting circumstances enumerated under the Revised Penal
Code:

1.) Imbecility or insanity, unless an insane person (not an imbecile) acted in

a lucid interval
2.) Persons under 9 years old
3.) Persons above 9 years old but below 15 if they didn't act with
discernment
4.) A person performing a lawful act with due care but causes injury by
mere accident without fault or the intention to cause the injury
5.) Any person compelled by an irresistible force (like having a gun put to
his head, for example)
6.)Any person acting under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of equal
or greater injury (like a death threat or hostage-taking)
7.) If a person who is required to perform an act required by law but is
prevented by a lawful or insuperable cause

Mitigating Circumstances

Factors that lessen the severity or culpability of a criminal act,

including, but not limited to, defendant's age or extreme mental or
emotional disturbance at the time the crime was committed, mental
retardation, and lack of a prior criminal record. Recognition of particular
mitigating circumstances varies by jurisdiction.

1. Circumstances which are otherwise justifying or exempting were it

not for the fact that all the requisites necessary to justify the act or to
exempt the offender from criminal liability in the respective cases are
not attendant
2. That the offender is under eighteen years of age or over seventy
years
3. That the offender had no intention to commit so grave a wrong as
that committed
4. That the sufficient provocation or threat on the part of the offender
party immediately preceded the act
5. That the act was committed in the immediate vindication of a grave
offense to the one committing the felony, his spouse, ascendants,
descendants, legitimate, natural or adopted brother or sister, or
relatives by affinity within the same degrees
6. That having acted upon impulse so powerful as naturally to produce
passion or obfuscation.
7. That the offender had voluntarily surrendered himself to the person
in authority or his agent, or that he had voluntarily confessed his
guilt before the court prior to the presentation of the evidence for the
prosecution
8. That the offender is deaf, dumb, blind, or otherwise suffering some
physical defect, which thus restricts his means of action, defense, or
communication with fellow human beings.
9. Such illness of the offender as would diminish the exercise of his
will-power without however depriving him of his conscious acts.

Aggravating circumtances

- Are those which increase the criminal liability of the offender or

make his guilt more severe. Circumstances considered by law as
aggravating the guilt of the offender are the following:
 1. That advantage be taken by the offender of his public position.
2. That the crime be committed in contempt of or with insult to
the public interest.
3. That the act be committed with abuse of confidence or
obvious ungratefulness.
4. That the crime be committed on the occasion of conflagration,
shipwreck, earthquake, epidemic, or other calamity or
misfortune.
5. That the crime be committed in consideration of price, reward
or promise.
6. That the crime be committed by means of inundation, fire,
poison, explosion, stranding of a vessel, or intentional damage
thereto, derailment of a locomotive, or by the use of any other
artifice involving great waste and ruin.
7. That the act be committed with evident premeditation.
8. That craft, fraud, or disguise be employed.
9. That the wrong done in the commission of the crime be
deliberately augmented by causing other wrong not
necessarily for its commission.

Alternative Circumstances

- Are those which must be taken into consideration either as

aggravating or mitigating, depending on the nature and effects of
the crime; these alternative circumstances are the relationship,
intoxication and the degree of instruction and education of the
offender.

 Relationship - is taken into consideration as alternative

circumstance when the offended party is the spouse,
ascendant, descendant, brother or sister (legitimate, natural,
or adopted), or relative by affinity in the same degrees of the
offender.
 Intoxication – commission of a crime under the state of
intoxication may be mitigated if intoxication is habitual or
intentional, the same shall be considered as aggravating
circumstances.
 Degree of Instruction and education – a person who fails to make
use of his knowledge and training and thereby causing injury
to another person may constitute a crime. Thus, a medical
doctor who, for some trivial reasons, happens to be in a public
place and who happens to witness a road accident, is guilty of
a crime if he refuses to help, and if his failure to help has
resulted to injury or death of other person which otherwise
could have been prevented. His criminal liability is aggravated
by the fact that he is a medical doctor specially educated to
treat injury, or help in such cases of distress.

UNLAWFUL PRACTICE IN THE WORK PLACE

 - There are many acts deemed illegal by the law. Just to name few
of the wrongful acts that are usually committed in the workplace,
here are examples of violations of public and civil laws.

 Criminal Negligence or Imprudence

- Indicates a deficiency of perception, or a flagrant and reckless

disregard of the safety of others and willful indifference to the
injury liable to follow from an act. This converts an act otherwise
lawful into crime when resulting in personal injury or death. There
are two classes of criminal negligence under Revised Penal Code.
1. Reckless Imprudence – this happens when one does an act,
or fails to do an act voluntarily but without malice, from
which act or omission a material damage or results
because of the offender’s inexcusable lack of precaution,
taking into consideration his employment or occupation,
degree of intelligence, physical condition, and other
circumstances regarding persons, time and place.
2. Simple Imprudence – a person is guilty of this crime if he
shows lack of precaution in those cases in which the
damage about to be caused is not immediate or in which
the impending danger is not evident or manifest.
Ex: a nurse who fails to perform her duty responsibly,
thereby causing an injury to her patient, may be prosecuted
for negligence.

 Physical Injury

- Maybe serious or slight, depending upon the nature and character

of the wound inflicted and their consequences on the person of
the victim.

1. Serious Physical Injury – is the consequence of the

deliberate act of wounding, beating or assaulting and has
resulted in insanity, imbecility, impotency, blindness, loss
of the use of any such part of the body. In addition, serious
physical injury is committed if the injury has rendered a
person permanently incapacitated for the work in which he
is regularly engaged or if the injury made the person ill and
incapacitated for the work he has regularly engaged for
more than 30 days.
Serious physical injury is also committed by any person,
who, without intent to kill, knowingly administers to
another person an injurious substance or beverage. Since
the administration of injurious substances or beverages is
deliberate, and impliedly treacherous, the crime committed
is frustrated murder.
2. Slight Physical Injury – refers to injury not described as
serious, but which incapacitate the offended party for labor
for ten days or more, but not more than thirty days.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT
 The anti-sexual harassment Act of 1995 defines sexual harassment as
an act committed by an employer, employee, manager, supervisor, agent of
the employer, teacher, instructor, professor, coach, trainor, or any other
person who, having authority, influence or moral ascendancy over another
in a work or training or education environment, demands, request or
otherwise requires any sexual favor from the other, regardless of whether
the demand, request or requirement for submission is accepted by the
object of said act (Ibid. sec. 3)
In a work-related or employment, sexual harassment is committed when
(Ibid. sec.3).
1. The sexual favor made as a condition in the hiring or in the
employment, re-employment, or continued employment of said
individual, or in granting said individual favorable compensation,
terms, conditions, promotion or privileges; or the refusal to grant
sexual favor results in limiting, segregating or classifying the
employee which, in any way, would discriminate, deprive or diminish
employment opportunities or otherwise. Adversely affect said
employee.
2. The above act would impair the employee’s rights or privileges under
existing labor laws
3. The above acts would result in an intimidating, hostile or offensive
environment for the employee.

Under the anti-sexual harassment law, any person who directs or

induces another to commit any act of sexual harassment, or who
cooperates in the commission thereof by another without which it
would not have been committed, is criminally liable for sexual
harassment (ibid). if the employer fails to act immediately on
complaints of sexual harassment, the employer assumes the full
liability of the damages arising from the acts of sexual harassment
committed in the employment (ibid).

ACT OF LASCIVIOUSNESS
Acts of lasciviousness are acts that tend to excite lust: conduct that is
wanton,lewd, voluptuous or lewd emotions (black 1968). Other than what is
provided fo0r in the penal code (i.e. Art. 336 & 339), Acts of lasciviousness
are committed when a person embraces, kisses or holds a woman’s breast
(Collado v. Domondom. C.A 364 O.G 1997)

GRAVE SCANDAL
Aside from the crimes explicitly presented in the penal code, the law
also sanctions other scandalous acts that offend decency ort good
customs (Revised Penal code, Art. 201), and are committed in public places
or are committed within the view or knowledge of the public (U.S V,
Samaniego 16 phil. 663).

DEFAMATION
Refers to a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or a vice or
defeat, real or imaginary or any act, omission, condition, status, or
circumstances tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a
natural or judicial person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead
(Revised penal code, Art. 353).Defamatory statements are those which
subject a person to public ridicule, shame, ostracism, disgrace, or
degradation.
 Defamation is committed either orally or in writing. If defamation is
committed orally it is called slander. If it is committed by means of writing
it is called libel.

MISDEMEANOUR
Misdemeanor is an offense of a less serious nature, and is usually
punishable by a fine or short-term imprisonment, or both. A worker or an
employee who slaps a client’s or a co-worker’s face could be charged with
Misdemeanor.

THEFT OR LARCENY
Theft or Larceny applies to any act of taking property against the will of
the owner, whether by stealth, confrontation of fraud, whether done quickly
or cautiously, and whether a large or small amount of stolen goods is
involved. For instance, a worker who brings home office materials and
equipment without the consent or permission of the employer is guilty of
theft.

GRAFT AND CORRUPTION

Graft and Corruption is the most perennial problem plaguing both the
government and private sectors. A worker is guilty of this offense when he
uses his position for dishonest gain; when he demands or receives for
personal use a fee, gift other valuable things in the course of his official
duties. Misuse of public funds may also constitute corruption.
REFERENCES:

Articulo A. C. et al (2001) Values and Work Ethics.