Termination After Resignation - Incident Report

Hello everyone,

We have a case in which the employee has started displaying unacceptable behavior. For instance, he refuses to accept a workload from his supervisor (despite being a team leader previously) and has essentially abandoned his position by not fulfilling his duties. Consequently, we have reassigned him to another group. The reason he refuses to accept the workload assigned by his supervisor is that he no longer sees himself as a team leader. Additionally, his behavior is disrespectful and unprofessional as he chooses when to leave.

Given the circumstances, we have already completed an incident report and conducted an administrative hearing. We were in the process of issuing another incident report and considering termination when the employee unexpectedly submitted his resignation via email. Our question is, do we still need to provide him with a termination letter or take any disciplinary action before his departure? Our lawyer is advising against it.

Please advise.

You can accept his resignation in my view, and adjust his dues in the final settlement. Terminating him may cause unnecessary issues that could give you a headache.

But as long as the termination is done through due process and documented, I don't think we will have a problem in the future.

It's just that our lawyer is too afraid of having an issue or facing a court problem in the future.

However, it's a concern for us in management that we cannot implement the policy that we have.

Your lawyer is right; accepting the resignation is less complicated. You can also decide not to accept the resignation and proceed with the termination if you want to. Just be sure that due process was observed, and there are enough grounds for the termination. The terminated employee can always file a case with the NLRC, and the burden of proof is with the employer.

Please note also that termination of employment can be voluntary, meaning the employee can initiate it, or it can be involuntary, meaning the management made the decision to sever the employee-employer relationship.

I agree your lawyer is right. Conducting due process of sending the required twin notices would take time. Before you knew it, the resignation date is over. Besides, you have to carefully prepare a series of memoranda based on your company policies before you decide to terminate the person.

While it is the sole decision of the management to proceed with terminating the employee, I agree with the lawyer's recommendation. Accepting the resignation would entail less hassle on the part of the management. Aside from paying legal fees, it is also very time-consuming in terms of documentation to prove that the decision was based on due process.

Nevertheless, you can always be honest when the time comes for background reference checks to be done by the prospective employer, and he cannot escape from this. Usually, information may be needed, such as citing the reason why he resigned, what his behavior was like, his performance, relationship with peers/supervisor, and the like.

Good luck.

Why do you want to punish someone who has volunteered to leave? The whole idea of termination is to remove someone who doesn't want to leave. Wish him luck and smile. He's out of your hair; end of story.

Lawyers are always liars. I know many lawyers tend to show that they are also working, hence viciate the office atmosphere. Unless necessary, lawyers must not be engaged in company affairs. That's a humble advice; these are the very scoundrels who play a double game and remain hidden.

Accept the resignation. This will be less complicated because:

1. You may require him to do a proper turnover, which is favorable to you if he has documents/items in his possession that need to be endorsed to your office.
2. No more labor case. He might contest his termination because normally, termination means forfeiture of any benefits usually granted to resigning employees as his/her final pay.
3. His future won't be totally messed up because of his record of termination.

All is well that ends well.

Yes, accept the resignation letter. Since he already sent one, you need not worry about him anymore. If you decide to fire him after receiving the resignation letter, it depends on the effective date he specified. If he states "effective immediately," you cannot issue a termination letter because the resignation is already in effect once he mentions "effective immediately." However, if he specifies a future effective date for his resignation, you can proceed with termination. I recommend allowing him to resign and treating him with kindness. We are all employees in the same company, unless we own it. As HR professionals, we should always be diplomatic and strive for industrial peace.

Thank you! I hope this helps resolve your concern.

Of course, accepting the resignation is hassle-free for you. However, in an organization, getting rid of such employees is necessary to set a precedence by summarily terminating them. This is to prevent the repetition of such behavior in the future.

Hello everyone,

We have a case in which the employee starts to have unacceptable behavior, such as he doesn't want to accept a workload from his supervisor (this employee involved is a team leader before) and he self-rendered his position since he is not performing his duties. We include him under another group, and his reason why he doesn't want to accept that workload given by this supervisor is because he is not a Team Leader anymore. He is also very nasty and doesn't have any respect for his superior. He leaves when he wants.

That's why we came up with an incident report (done), admin hearing (done), and about to give him another incident report. The last step is termination, but after preparing all of this, we received an email from him stating that he is resigning from his position. The question is, do we still need to give him a termination letter or any disciplinary action before he leaves? Our lawyer doesn't want to.

Please help.

"Always choose the 'lesser evil.' It is better to accept the resignation letter than to continue the due process of termination."

I have a similar case where an employee has been on AWOL for 60 days already. Our policy provides for a penalty of termination in this situation. We sent the first notice to the employee through his last known address, and in response, we received a resignation letter. Although we can proceed with the termination penalty, our lawyer recommends accepting the resignation instead. In accepting the resignation, we still highlighted the AWOL incident to emphasize that such behavior is unacceptable. We confirmed his voluntary resignation from employment, effective from the date he started his AWOL.