Magdaleno Lucban

Getting into legalities might not be the proper way to address the issue. If you want to prohibit incurring debt from a co-worker, you can include this in the company's ethical standards in the Employee Handbook. For example, instead of outright prohibiting debt from co-worker, you can frame it as an ethical standard by stating that all persons are required to pay their lenders, whether co-workers, relatives, or friends. You may want to teach employees how to lend money. An example would be a Promissory Note where the debtor promises to pay a certain amount every payday to the lender. You can go even further by requiring the debtor to sign a document where debtor allows the company to deduct the payment of debt to another employee through salary deduction. The consent of the debtor to salary deduction is important. Do not omit this step. The proceeds of the payment will be credited to the lender. That way lender is assured of payment. If the debtor does not agree to a salary deduction, then the lender should not lend him any money. This is just one item in the company's ethical standards. To be able to inform employees, package the ethical standards in such a way that there are other standards that an employee has to comply with. You can discuss the company ethical standards during orientation of new employees or general company meeting. I am suggesting the packaging of ethical standards in order to prevent "kapalmuks" borrowers from thinking that they are the target of the ethical standards.

Abortion may be resorted to when the woman is in a medical emergency. For example, when continued pregnancy results to uncontrolled hypertension. Or the woman met an accident and the fetus died in her womb. The doctor will examine the patient. It is only the doctor who can declare a woman to be at risk and abortion is medically necessary.

You did well. Keep up the good work.

For starters, were you given a letter from management/HR informing you of your offense and requesting you to explain your side of the issue? The letter should also warn you that your employment may be terminated. Second, was there a hearing conducted by management to allow you to explain yourself? Finally, were you given a letter informing you of the decision of management to terminate your employment? If the foregoing steps were not done, then you were either illegally dismissed or constructively dismissed. You can file a case in DOLE for illegal dismissal.

The termination of employment should be based on Art. 297 (formerly Art. 282) of the Labor Code. Redundancy or low performing employees may be considered valid grounds for termination. To determine the validity of such termination, an employee, who was terminated for the cited reason, should file a complaint with the NLRC Arbitration Branch of the place where the company is located. The NLRC will determine if the termination of the employee is for just cause and the employee was accorded due process. The employer, on the other hand, will have a chance to explain the basis of terminating an employee. Whether the ground is valid depends on the individual circumstance of an employee which will be taken into consideration when a complaint is filed with the NLRC by the affected employee.

There is no imprisonment for debt. However, banks and lending companies would have submitted your credit status to the Credit Information Corporation (CIC). It is much like a credit bureau. Your information in the CIC will limit your future loan application. For example, if in the near future, you would like to avail of a loan for a motor vehicle, the bank or lending company will first check with CIC for information on your credit standing. You will have a bad credit standing because of your unpaid loan. Hence, your application for a motor vehicle loan will be denied. Now collection agencies are debt buyers. Uptown sold your debt to a collection agency in the amount that you owe Uptown including interests and penalties. As far as Uptown is concerned your debt to them is paid when it sold your debt to the collection agency. You are now indebted to the collection agency. I suggest you consider seriously paying your loan to restore your good credit standing. If you are ready to pay, then talk seriously with the collection agency so you will be able to get a good price. After your debt is settled, move to have your credit history in CIC removed. You will then be in good standing. Stop using your joblessness as an excuse to ignore your debt.