Labor laws have developed to uphold the rights of the employees in order to protect them from unfair practices of the employees. Since most employees are businesses, maximisation of their profits has become their focus to the detriment of the welfare of the workers. The law tilts towards the employees since the power of the employee has to be tempered since the former is almost always weaker compared to the latter. Unconscionable working conditions, unfair labor practices, and outright dismissal are supposed to be inexistent at present but many employees still work below the minimum standards set by law and jurisprudence. Many of them have to endure their plight since having a difficult work environment is better than having no work at all. Over the years, many employers were found to have violated the Labor Code and were ordered to pay back pay and reinstate the illegally dismissed employee. Illegal dismissal may have been easy to detect or determine, it is the other kind which is not- constructive dismissal. The first one is of course dismissal of the employee from service without any of the grounds allowed by law while the other is putting the employee in such a condition so as to make him resign. Here, the severance of the employer-employee relationship appears voluntary but actually not.
The Supreme Court in many cases have “defined constructive dismissal as a cessation of work because continued employment is rendered impossible, unreasonable or unlikely; when there is a demotion in rank or diminution in pay or both; or when a clear discrimination, insensibility, or disdain by an employer becomes unbearable to the employee.”( Uniwide Sales Warehouse Club v. NLRC, supranote 22, at 549). In MCMER vs. NLRC (G.R. 193421, 04 June 2014), the Court found that the employee “could not have given up a job he has engaged in for eight years unless it has become so unbearable for him to stay therein. Indeed, private respondent felt compelled to give up his employment.” Although the resignation might be voluntary, the reason behind is the unfair acts of the employer. “The test of constructive dismissal is whether a reasonable person in the employee’s position would have felt compelled to give up his position under the circumstances. Based on the factual considerations in the instant case, we hold that the hostile and unreasonable working conditions of petitioner justified the finding of the Labor Arbiter and the NLRC that petitioner was constructively dismissed.” The constructive dismissal produces the same effect as forthright dismissal since the employee may be reinstated, his back pay to be paid, and the employer may be subject to penalty. This should make sure that the employers not subject their employees to harassments are humiliation in order to force them to resign thereby circumventing the law.
The Supreme Court “legislated” this principle in labor cases in order to fully protect labor from unscrupulous employers who resort to all sorts of techniques in order to go around the provisions of law. “An employee who is forced to surrender his position through the employer’s unfair or unreasonable acts is deemed to have been illegally terminated and such termination is deemed to be involuntary.” Constructive dismissal does not always involve forthright dismissal or diminution in rank, compensation, benefit and privileges. There may be constructive dismissal if an act of clear discrimination, insensibility or disdain by an employer becomes so unbearable on the part of the employee that it could foreclose any choice by him except to forego his continued employment.”
