When is it considered Willful Disobedience? | 6 May 2024

To be validly dismissed on the ground of willful disobedience requires the concurrence of at least two requisites

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Alburo Law
May 06, 2024

Refusal to Render Overtime Work – When Considered Willful Disobedience?

Any employee may be required by the employer to perform overtime work when there is urgent work to be performed on machines, installations, or equipment, in order to avoid serious loss or damage to the employer or some other cause of similar nature. (Article 89 (c), Labor Code of the Philippines)

To be validly dismissed on the ground of willful disobedience requires the concurrence of at least two requisites: (1) the employee’s assailed conduct must have been willful or intentional, the willfulness being characterized by a wrongful and perverse attitude; and, (2) the order violated must have been reasonable, lawful, made known to the employee and must pertain to the duties which he had been engaged to discharge.

A refusal to provide overtime work despite the employee’s knowledge that there is a production deadline that needs to be met, and that without him, the offset machine operator, no further printing can be had, shows his wrongful and perverse mental attitude, thus, there is willfulness.

Such an order is legal under Article 89 (c) of the Labor Code and the employee’s unexplained refusal to obey is insubordination that merits dismissal from service. (Billy Realda vs. New Age Graphics, Inc., G.R. No. 192190, April 25, 2012)

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