Rejected or Fired in the Philippines After a Hepatitis B Result: What You Can Claim as a Worker

First: do not accept 'failed the medical' and walk away. Ask for the reason in writing

A verbal "you did not pass the medical, we cannot hire you" or "your condition is not suitable for this job" is not enough. You are entitled to a specific reason in writing. Many people give up at this point because they feel the problem lies in their own body. The rules start from the opposite view. Carrying the hepatitis B virus does not mean a person cannot work, and ordinary office contact, shared meals or handshakes do not transmit it. Screening people out by a diagnostic label in place of actual ability is the practice the policy is meant to correct.

On the day and afterwards, do three things:

1. Ask the company to state its decision and reasons in writing. An email is enough: please confirm in writing the decision to withdraw the offer (or end my employment) and its specific basis, including the medical conclusion and the job requirement relied on. Whatever comes back, or nothing at all, is evidence.
2. Get your medical report. It is health information about you, and you are entitled to a complete copy, including the examining doctor's conclusion page.
3. Sign nothing on the spot. Especially a voluntary withdrawal from the offer, a resignation, or a mutual separation confirming there is no dispute. Take the document away and read it.

Keep the tone calm. There is no need to accuse anyone of discrimination in the email; state the facts and make the request. Your aim is to have the real reason recorded on paper. If the only real reason is hepatitis B, that reply is the core of any later claim. If the company offers another reason, such as the position being cancelled or probation performance, look at whether the facts support it and whether it surfaced right after the medical result.

What the rules say: non-discrimination, confidentiality, fitness assessed by a doctor, and the limits

Philippine policy in this area can be summarised in four points, and it has clear limits. Know both.

• Non-discrimination. Hepatitis B status alone should not be the basis to refuse hiring, force a transfer, deny promotion or end employment.
• Confidentiality. Test results are sensitive personal information, to be known only by those who need to know, not passed around a department or a chat group.
• Fitness is for a doctor. Whether a person can do a particular job should be assessed by an occupational health physician against the real content of the job and the person's condition, not decided by HR at the sight of a positive result.
• Support, not exclusion. Companies are expected to have a written workplace policy covering education, referral for care and reasonable arrangements.

The limits:

• Genuine medical unfitness for a specific job. If a doctor assesses that, in your current condition, a specific task carries a clear risk, the company may act on that. The basis has to be the assessment, not the label, and adjustment should be considered before termination.
• Dismissal on the ground of disease has strict conditions. Philippine law sets demanding prerequisites, generally including a certification from a competent public health authority, and it involves statutory separation pay. A "medical" dismissal without those prerequisites is likely to be hard to defend.
• Visa medicals follow a different standard. Medical requirements for certain foreign-national documents are judged by the authority concerned, which is a separate question from whether an employer may dismiss you.
• Sector health-permit rules. A few sectors have their own health-certificate requirements for workers; the scope is set by the authority's current rules.

In other words, the rules do not say a carrier faces no restriction in any job. They say a restriction needs a medical basis and the correct procedure.

The first 24 hours to one week: evidence, a doctor's opinion and privacy

In this period, obtain three things: the company's position in writing, a doctor's opinion in writing, and proof of any disclosure of your result.

1. Secure proof of the offer or the employment. Offer letter, contract, onboarding emails, ID badge, training attended, payslips. Applicants in particular should keep anything showing the company had decided to hire them, such as an email stating a start date.
2. Fix the timeline. The date of the medical, the date of the result, who spoke to you on which day and what was said. Recap verbal conversations in writing: you informed me today that I will not be hired because of my medical result; I am confirming this. If nobody denies it, it becomes a written record.
3. See a specialist and get a fitness opinion. Ask a gastroenterologist or liver specialist to complete an assessment and write an opinion in English on your current condition and capacity to work. Which tests are needed and whether treatment is required is for the doctor. This opinion is the strongest answer to "not fit for work".
4. Watch for disclosure. If colleagues already know your result or it is being discussed in a group, take screenshots and note who said what and when. Spreading health information without your consent is a separate matter you can raise.
5. Object in writing. Tell the company you do not agree with the decision, attach the doctor's opinion and ask it to reconsider and reply by a specific date.

If you are still employed, keep coming to work and doing your job. Do not stay home because of a difficult conversation, since that can be called abandonment, and do not say under pressure that you will leave on your own. Being pushed to write a resignation letter is covered in forced resignation and constructive dismissal.

Applicant or employee: what you can claim differs

Whether you were a candidate or an employee determines how strong the claim is and which route applies. Place yourself correctly first.

Situation one: the medical came before any offer, and no offer was issued. This is the hardest. No employment relationship exists yet, and labor arbiters generally deal with disputes arising during employment and from its termination. That does not leave you without options: you can report the company to the labor department for breaching the workplace hepatitis B policy, and raise a privacy complaint about how your health information was collected and used. Realistically, this route does more to make the company change its practice than to deliver direct relief to you.

Situation two: an offer was issued and then withdrawn after the medical. Once you accepted the offer, whether a binding relationship had formed and whether the withdrawal amounts to a breach or an unlawful termination is arguable. Keep the offer and your acceptance. If you resigned from another job or relocated in reliance on it, keep proof of those losses.

Situation three: you had already started, including on probation. You are an employee, and ending the employment requires a legally recognised ground and due process. Probation is not free rein either; the company must show you failed reasonable standards made known at hiring. See probationary employment rules. A dismissal based only on hepatitis B status can be challenged as illegal dismissal; the general sequence after a sudden dismissal is in what to do first when you are fired.

Situation four: no dismissal, but a clearly worse assignment, isolation or repeated pressure to quit. If the change would make continued work impossible for a reasonable person, it may be treated as constructive dismissal, provided you did not hand in a resignation.

In all four, which remedies are available and how they are calculated is for a lawyer to assess on your documents. This article gives no figures.

Going outside the company: three channels, and what not to do

If the internal objection goes nowhere, choose the channel by the nature of the problem. One situation can involve two channels.

1. The labor department. A company with no hepatitis B policy, using screening as a hiring condition, or refusing or dismissing on that basis, is a workplace-policy matter you can report to the regional office. Labor disputes normally start with a conciliation round; see filing a labor complaint in the Philippines.
2. Labor arbitration. If you were already employed and unlawfully terminated, and conciliation fails, you can proceed to arbitration for the appropriate relief. Foreign employees have standing; see foreigners before the NLRC.
3. The privacy regulator. If your result was seen by people with no need to know, circulated in a group or used for unrelated purposes, a complaint can be made under data-privacy law. The basic duties of companies are in data privacy basics for companies.

What not to do:

• Do not try to keep the job by altering a report or getting a "clean" one elsewhere. Falsifying or concealing medical documents turns you from the wronged party into one at fault, with consequences far worse than losing this job.
• Do not name the company or individuals on social media. Public accusations can create defamation exposure and make settlement harder.
• Do not stay silent out of shame. Being a carrier is a common health condition and the rules are on your side. Giving up the claim signals that the practice was acceptable.

Assess things realistically too. Proceedings take time and depend on evidence. Some people take the doctor's opinion to the company and negotiate a dignified outcome, or simply move to the next job. Those are reasonable choices. What matters is that you make the decision informed, not that you are sent away with one sentence.

For foreign employees: keep your status alive, and where Yixing fits

A foreign national who is dismissed faces a status problem at the same moment as the employment problem, and both have to be managed together. The work permit and work visa sit under the employer, and once employment ends the company will normally apply to cancel them. You then have to downgrade, transfer to a new employer or depart within the period set by the Bureau of Immigration at the time. The options are set out in staying lawfully after losing a job.

Three practical points:

• Pursuing your rights does not require staying on the old company's documents. A labor case can continue after your status changes, through a representative where necessary.
• A new employer's application may involve another medical. Have the specialist's assessment ready in advance so that you are leading the conversation, not reacting to it. The visa-side article explains the considerations.
• Do not accept plainly unfair exit terms out of fear for your status. Status has its own solutions, whereas a signed exit document is hard to undo. See should you sign a quitclaim.

Yixing can handle the status side: confirming the current state of your work permit and visa, explaining the documents and sequence for a downgrade or a transfer, and filing once you have chosen. That is part of our visa and HR services. Yixing holds SEC registration CS202009551, Bureau of Immigration accreditation (BI Accreditation No. CA-202624381-1, valid to 2027-06-30) and DOLE accreditation. We are not a medical provider and give no medical opinion; we do not act in labor arbitration or judge either side; and we do not promise any approval or ruling.

On health matters, rely on your specialist's in-person judgment.

Every case turns on its own facts: consult a licensed lawyer. This article is not legal advice. Yixing is a private consultancy with no affiliation to any government office, and it does not represent parties in labor arbitration or litigation.