Dismissed During Probation in the Philippines: How an Employee Can Tell Whether It Was Lawful

Short answer: probation is not dismissal at will; there must be a ground and a process

Whether a dismissal during probation is lawful depends on the reason and on how it was done. A probationary employee in the Philippines is still protected against dismissal. The employer may end the employment only for a just cause, for an authorized business cause, or because you failed to meet the standards for regularization that were made known to you when you were hired. The idea common among Chinese employees that either side may walk away freely during probation does not hold here.

Lawful probationary dismissals therefore fall into three groups. The first is serious fault on your part, such as serious misconduct, willful disobedience of a reasonable order, gross neglect, fraud or a crime against the employer or the employer's family. The second is a business reason on the company's side, such as redundancy, retrenchment or closure. The third is specific to probation: failure to meet reasonable standards that were communicated to you at the time of engagement.

In practice almost every probationary dismissal relies on the third ground, and it is also the one most likely to fail, because it carries a strict precondition: the standards must have been disclosed in advance. The next section is devoted to that.

Set your expectations before acting. Even where the dismissal is flawed, what you can claim is not identical to what a regular employee can claim, and because probation is short, the practical value of a fight has to be weighed against the time and energy it takes. This article is not meant to push you into a case. It is meant to help you judge whether the dismissal stands, and then decide whether to contest it, negotiate, or leave in good order with your papers.

What the employer must do to comply is in probationary period rules in the Philippines. The general sequence after any sudden dismissal is in what to do if you are fired in the Philippines. This article covers only the probation angle.

The key question: were you told the regularization standards when you were hired?

To dismiss you for failing to qualify, the standards must be reasonable and must have been made known to you at the time you were engaged. If they were not, the law may treat you as a regular employee from the first day.

Think back and check the following.

1. Is it in what you signed? Look at your offer letter, employment contract, job description and any evaluation plan you acknowledged at onboarding. Do they contain specific measures such as sales targets, quality requirements, attendance, or training and tests you must pass?
2. When were you told? Only what was given at hiring counts fully. Probation criteria issued after you had already been working for a while, or requirements you first heard about on the day of dismissal, carry much less weight.
3. Are the standards specific and reasonable? Phrases such as good performance or meeting company expectations can hardly be tested. Targets so high that an ordinary person could not reach them are not reasonable. Some basic requirements are self-evident, for instance that a driver can drive or that an accountant does not falsify books, and need not be written down.
4. Were you actually evaluated? Were there performance discussions, written feedback or warnings to improve along the way? If you were never told of a problem and then suddenly declared unfit, the company has to explain what its conclusion rests on.

If you hold nothing that states the standards, do not jump to a conclusion. Ask HR in writing for a copy of the probation standards that applied when you joined and for the record of your evaluation. If the company can produce them, you know its basis. If it cannot, your email is itself evidence.

Be honest with yourself in the other direction too. If the standards were written clearly, you signed them, you were reminded along the way and you did fall short, the dismissal probably stands. In that case put your effort into obtaining a fairly worded certificate of employment and prompt payment of what is due. That is the more practical goal, and a calm request made in writing usually gets a faster answer than an argument about whether the evaluation was fair.

Timing and notice: if you kept working past the probation period, your status may have changed

Apart from the reason, look at two procedural points: whether the dismissal was made within the probation period, and whether the company gave you written notice.

Probation has a legal maximum. The exact length depends on the law and your contract. The contract may set a shorter period but generally not a longer one, apart from apprenticeship and other cases the law treats separately. The period runs from the day you actually started work.

If you were allowed to keep working after it ended, you are generally considered regular. If the company told you that you did not pass only after the period had lapsed, it is no longer dealing with a probationary employee but with a regular one, and the threshold for dismissal is entirely different. So the first thing to do is set your start date beside the date you received the notice and count carefully.

Be careful with an extension of probation. Some companies ask the employee to sign an extension shortly before the period ends. An extension is not always void, but one that goes beyond the legal maximum is unlikely to be recognized. If you are asked to sign such a paper, do not sign on the spot. Photograph it and ask questions first.

Form of notice. Where the ground is failure to meet standards, the company should give you written notice within a reasonable time, stating the reason. Where the ground is your own fault, the procedure is stricter: normally a written notice of the charge, an opportunity to explain, and then a written notice of the decision. A verbal remark that you need not come in tomorrow is procedurally deficient whatever the ground.

A procedural defect does not necessarily void the dismissal, but it affects the company's liability and gives you leverage in negotiation. Arrange every document and message you received in order of date. If the company is not dismissing you but suggesting that resigning would look better, that is a different situation; see being forced to resign in the Philippines.

Five kinds of probationary dismissal that usually do not hold

Compare your experience with the five situations below. If one of them fits, the dismissal deserves a serious look.

One, the real reason is something the law protects. You became pregnant or applied for maternity leave, took sick leave with a certificate, complained internally or to the labor authorities about unpaid wages or overtime, or refused an unlawful assignment. The stated reason is that you are not a fit, but the timing follows closely on one of these events.

Two, the standards appeared afterward. Nothing was said at hiring, and a list of unmet requirements surfaced only at dismissal.

Three, the reasons keep changing. You were told verbally it was performance, the letter says attitude, and the certificate says end of contract. The more the story shifts, the less credible it is.

Four, people with the same record were treated differently. Colleagues hired in the same batch with similar numbers were regularized and only you were not, and the company cannot say what the difference was.

Five, there was no evaluation at all. No appraisal form, no meeting, no written feedback. The conclusion came from nowhere.

By contrast, the company usually stands on firm ground where the standards were given in writing, you did fall short and were warned; where you have a documented serious offence; or where the position was abolished through a real business change handled according to law. In those cases there is little to gain from a fight.

One grey practice is worth recognizing: repeated short contracts or successive rounds of probation that keep a person from ever becoming regular. Whether that is lawful depends on the facts; see the legal status of endo arrangements. If the immediate trigger for your dismissal was emergency leave for a family matter, see also leave denied during a family emergency.

From the day you are told to the end of the week: what to obtain, what not to sign, what to claim

Get the documents first, discuss money second, and decide about a complaint last. On the day itself, sign nothing that says you resigned voluntarily or that everything has been settled.

1. Ask for written notice. If you were only told verbally, confirm by email that a named person informed you today that your employment ends on a given date, and ask for the reason in writing.
2. Preserve evidence. Offer letter and contract, job description, evaluation records, payslips, work exchanges with your supervisor, any praise or absence of negative feedback. Keep only what concerns you, and take no company secrets.
3. Do not sign what you do not understand. This applies above all to a letter recasting the dismissal as a resignation and to a release waiving all claims. You may acknowledge receipt of a notice and add that your signature means received only, not agreed.
4. List what you are owed. Pay for days worked, proportionate thirteenth month pay, unused leave that can be converted to cash, deposits or advances to be returned. The components of a final settlement are in final pay and separation pay in the Philippines.
5. Request a certificate of employment. The company must issue one stating your period of service and position. It matters for your next job.
6. Choose a path. If you want to negotiate, bring your timeline and evidence and discuss a settlement figure and the wording of the certificate. If that fails, you can request single-entry conciliation with the labor authorities, which is free and does not require a lawyer.

If the dismissal is eventually found illegal, the remedy generally points toward reinstatement and back pay, or money in place of reinstatement. How far that reaches for a probationary employee varies a great deal from case to case, and a lawyer needs to look at your contract term and the remaining probation period. Do not assume a figure based on what you read online.

Claims prescribe and evidence scatters, but you do not have to decide the same day. Give yourself a few days to complete the list above before choosing.

Foreign employees: when probation ends badly, the visa clock starts too

A foreign employee dismissed during probation has two matters to handle at once: labor rights, and the working status that loses its basis together with the job. The second is often the more urgent.

First, establish what status you hold right now. Some companies file the work visa for a foreign hire only after regularization, so during probation you may still be on another visa type. Others file at onboarding. The consequences of dismissal differ between the two. The relationship between the work visa and probation is explained in whether a 9G can be filed during probation.

Second, if the work visa has already been issued. Once employment ends, the employer has reporting and cancellation steps to take, and you need to convert to another lawful status within a reasonable time or leave the country. The available routes are in lawful stay options after losing a job.

Third, if the work visa is still being processed. The application may stop, and your passport may still be lodged with the process. Ask immediately where the passport is, what stage the application reached and what is needed to withdraw it.

Fourth, if you worked through probation without any work visa. The responsibility lies mainly with the employer, but the risk to you is real. Be more careful about how you assert labor rights in this situation and have a lawyer assess it first. Do not abandon wages you earned out of fear, and do not rashly push the matter into immigration territory either.

Fifth, recover your passport and documents first. They belong to you and should not be a condition of settlement. If the company uses them as pressure, that is a separate problem.

What Yixing does: whether your claim holds up under labor law, what to demand and whether to file a case are questions for a licensed lawyer; Yixing is a private consultancy, not a law firm. Our part is the status side: checking the real state and remaining validity of your 9G visa, Alien Employment Permit and ACR I-Card; sequencing the paperwork if you decide to stay, change employers or leave, so the labor dispute and your lawful stay do not collide; and helping you find a lawyer who handles labor and immigration matters. For that kind of help, see Yixing visa and HR advisory.

Yixing International Travel is a Chinese-language business consultancy registered in Makati, Philippines, holding SEC Registration CS202009551, Bureau of Immigration Accreditation No. CA-202624381-1 (valid to 2027-06-30), DOLE accreditation and PRA accreditation. We are not affiliated with any government agency and promise no outcome. How to choose a lawyer is in how to find a reliable lawyer in the Philippines. Consult a licensed lawyer for your specific case; this article is not legal advice.