Ask for the official nomination forms from the UFS, Room 303 Plaza Towers Building, L. Guerrero St., Ermita, Manila. For inquiries call phone nos. 5260668/ 5244888 and 5255806 or fax 5242336.

A WEB page enabling workers to gain rapid access to essential information about their health and safety rights and responsibilities has been set up by the Health and Safety Executive.

The "workers’ webpage" http://www.hse.gov.uk/ workers
- covers the roles and responsibilities of employers and employees, as well as issues such as ‘whistle-blowing’ and reporting accidents.

The meaning of due process
 
 

NO WORKER shall be dismissed except for a just or authorized cause provided by law and after due process. Under our laws, the shipowner’s reason or cause for terminating a seaman’s employment is as important as the manner or procedure it is done.

In the event that the manner or procedure is inappropriate, the termination itself is defective and may be declared unjustified. A seaman cannot be automatically repatriated or sent home to the country without complying with the due process of law.

What then is the meaning of “due process” in terminating a seaman’s employment?
In brief, due process in dismissal cases entails compliance with the twin requirements of due notice and hearing. The procedure conforming to these requirements are as follows:
a) The employer shall furnish the worker a written notice containing a statement of the cause(s) for dismissal;
b) The workers given ample opportunity to be heard and to defend himself with the assistance of a representative, if he so desires; and
c) The decision is made by the employer without prejudice to the right of the worker to contest the validity or legality of the dismissal by filing a complaint with the proper authorities. At this point, the burden of proof to justify the dismissal shall rest on the employer.

These guidelines mandate that the employer furnish an employee sought to be dismissed copies of written notices of dismissal before a termination of employment can be legally affected. These are the notices which apprise the employee of the particular acts or omission for which the dismissal is sought and the subsequent notice which informs the employee of the employer’s decision to dismiss him. (National Services Corporation vs NLRC, 168 SCRA 122) These requirements must be observed. Likewise, a reading of the guidelines in consonance with the expressed provision of law on protection to labor (which encompasses the right to security of tenure) and the broader dictates of procedural due process necessarily mandates that notice of the employer’s decision to dismiss an employee, with the reason thereof, can only be issued after the employer’s has afforded the employee concerned ample opportunity to be heard and to defend himself. (ibid). Failure to comply with the requirements taints the dismissal with illegality. This procedure is mandatory, in the absence of which any judgment reached by management is void and existent. (Tingson Jr. vs NLRC, 185 SCRA 498) These twin requirements of notice and hearing constitute the essential element of due process, and neither of these elements can be eliminated without running afoul of the constitutional guaranty. (Vinta Maritime Co, Inc.vs NLRC,284 SCRA 656)

Moreover, in the case of Banawa vs NLRC, 251 SCRA 515, the Supreme Court correctly ruled that due process is so crucial in termination proceedings that it should not be lightly set aside, most especially where the incident transpired in a foreign land and the dismissed seaman was left alone to fend for himself. A manning contract involves the interest of not only the signatories thereto, such as the local Filipino recruiting agents, the foreign owner of the vessels and the Filipino seamen in general, as well as the country’s itself. The stringent rules governing Filipino seamen aboard foreign-going ships are dictated by national interest.

Lastly, in the case of Puerto Azul Beach Hotel vs Sisayan, 15 SCRA 126, the Supreme Court rightfully held:

“The provision of the Labor Code on notice and hearing being essential before an employee may be dismissed are too basic for employers to ignore. In the heat of anger, an employer may scold an employee and require him to explain or get out of firm. This verbal outburst cannot take the place of the mandatory written notice. Employers should have learned by now how to deal with this situation. It does not serve the purpose of labor legislation or the protections of the due process clause if the Court allows verbal notices, flatly refuted or denied by the worker, to take the place of formal notices,” (Underscoring supplied.)

With these in light, a ship owner must and shall conform to the twin requirements of notice and hearing before terminating a seaman’s employment. This is in consonance with the principle of due process, which in general, means simply that before a seaman may be held bound by any proceeding, where it be for disciplinary or termination purposes, he should be notified thereof and thus be given an opportunity to defend himself. The manner or procedure of terminating one’s employment must and shall conform to this standard in order for such to be impressed with the stamp of validity like any deprivation of life, liberty and property. This is because a seaman’s employment is considered property and “NO PERSON SHALL BE DEPRIVED OF THE LIFE, LIBERTY OR PROPERTY WITHOUT DUE PROCESS OF LAW.”

(The author is formerly the chief of the Legal and Enforcement Division of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC). He is presently an attorney with admiralty and labor laws as his main concern at the Sapalo & Velez Law Offices, 11th Floor, Security Bank Center, 6776 Ayala Avenue, Makati City, tel. no. 891-13-16. He is also a professor of law at the College of Law, Manuel L. Quezon University.)

EDITORIAL
Seafarers’ patriotic duties

SOUNDING LEAD
Seafarers have spoken
Capt. Reynold M. Sabay

UGONG NG MAKINA 
AT IKOT NG ELISE
Sobra sa training kulang sa galing
Engr. Nelson P. Ramirez

SPIRITUAL VOYAGE
Thanks, the most forgotten word
David B. Toring Jr., AOS-Cebu 

VAST HORIZON
The grace of humility
C/Engr. Rodolfo B. Virtudazo

THE LAW OF SEAFARERS
The meaning of due process
Atty. LeonardoVinz O. Ignacio

COMMENT
The POEA mess, 
a deadly trap
Capt. Leuel P. Oseña

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