By MPT South Legal Services Team | JULY 2026
“Actively participating in profane conversations with coworkers using company resources during office hours and sending company information to one’s personal email address in violation of company rules amount to serious misconduct, which is a just cause of terminating one’s employment.”[1]
[1] Perez vs. JP Morgan Chase Bank, et al. G.R. No. 256939 (November 13, 2023)
Employee A was a customer representative in the HRAD of XYZ Company. Employee A was reported to have sent obscene messages and lewd remarks about female colleagues, photos of female and male genitalia, and sexual intercourse in the company’s group chat app, as well as forwarded company information to a personal email account. Consequently, Employee A was dismissed for serious misconduct in violation of company policy.
Employee A filed a complaint for illegal dismissal denying to have posted such messages but admitted to only saying “Hahaha…” and “Up down up down left right left right”. Employee A also denied forwarding confidential information to a personal email account. Further, Employee A argued that the penalty of dismissal was not commensurate to the acts that were allegedly committed.
Article 297 of the Labor Code provides that an employer may terminate the employee for serious misconduct. Misconduct is defined as the “transgression of some established and definite rule of action, a forbidden act, a dereliction of duty, willful in character, and implies wrongful intent and not mere error in judgment”. In the present case, Employee A was found to have participated in and used the company chatroom in uttering indecent words about female colleagues and sending out company information to a personal email address which were clear violations of company policy. Hence, the Supreme Court ruled that Employee A was validly dismissed from employment.
This article was published via email to MPT South Legal employees on 15 March 2024 as a Legally Yours article of the MPT South Legal. The Legally Yours was initiated by then Senior Manager, Atty. Marcial Bernales, Jr., supported by the MPT South Legal Team as a way to disseminate relevant legal materials to the MPT South employees. The MPT South Legal Team now wishes to share it with the whole MPTC group. Thank you.
