SC: Retirement before 65 requires voluntary employee consent

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that employees cannot be forced to retire before the compulsory retirement age of 65 without them giving clear and voluntary consent to their respective companies.

In a decision promulgated on June 29, the SC’s First Division partly granted the petition of Rodolfo Ondevilla against Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Laguna (CSJL), which had considered his appointment as school comptroller expired after he turned 60 in 2019.

Ondevilla filed an illegal dismissal complaint against the CSJL before the

Labor Arbiter and the National Labor Relations Commission, where he won the case.

READ: SC junks 3 petitions vs impeachment court’s ‘two-thirds’ ruling

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals, in its decision, said that although it also found Ondevilla illegally dismissed, a letter he sent to the school showed he had agreed to retire effective July 31, 2020.

The employee argued that he never intended to retire before turning 65, challenging the CA’s decision before the SC.

The high tribunal then ruled in his favor and found CSJL guilty of illegal dismissal since “his retirement was involuntary.”

The SC explained that Ondevilla’s letter to the school “was not a clear notice that he was choosing early retirement,” but actually “a response to the school’s demand that he repay the cash advance he had received from CSJL.”

Citing the Labor Code, the court noted that “the retirement age is set by an existing agreement or employment contract.”“If neither exists, the law sets the compulsory retirement age at 65 and the minimum age for optional retirement at 60,” said the SC.

With this, the high court said Ondevilla was entitled to full backwages and separation pay.

He was also awarded retirement benefits covering his employment from 2004 to 2024, upon reaching the 65-mandatory retirement age. /mr