The minimum amount of a terminated or dismissed employee’s termination pay depends on the reason or ground for his dismissal, either a half month’s pay or one month’s pay for every year of service, but in no case will an employee get the equivalent of less than one month’s pay.

Cases where employee is entitled to a half month’s pay for every year

  1. Retrenchment to prevent losses, i.e. reduction of personnel affected by management to prevent losses
  2. Closure or cessation of operation of an establishment not due to serious losses or financial reverses; and
  3. When the employee is suffering from a disease not curable within a period of six (6) months and his continued employment is prejudicial to his health or to the health of his co-employees.

Cases where employee is entitled to one month’s pay for every year

  1. Installation of labor-saving device, such as replacement of employees by machineries or computerization;
  2. Redundancy, as when the position of the employee has been found to be surplusage or unnecessary in the operation of the enterprise;
  3. Impossible reinstatement of the employee to his former position or to a substantially equivalent position for reasons not attributable to the fault of the employer, as when the reinstatement ordered by a competent authority cannot be implemented due to closure or cessation of operations of the establishment or employer, or when the position to which he is to be reinstated no longer exists and there is not substantially equivalent position in the establishment to which he can be assigned.

Learn more about how to compute termination pay and other legal requirements of dismissing employees from Guide to Valid Dismissal of Employees by Atty. Elvin Villanueva.