Dishonest female bank employee loses appeal

[ASEAN NOW News]

Court of Appeals (File photo)

 

MANILA – A former bank employee who contested her termination for withdrawing from the accounts of her relatives has lost her appeal.

 

Associate Justice Myra Garcia-Fernandez of the Court of Appeals’ (CA) Twelfth Division affirmed the decision of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on the case dismissal of Geraldine Ong.

 

Ong was issued a notice of termination on September 2017 by the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) due to fraud, dishonesty, and breach of trust.

 

The termination arose from irregularities in the withdrawals from the accounts of her parents-in-law and cousin-in-law.

 

Ong claimed that the withdrawals were done with the knowledge and authorization of her in-laws and husband.

She presented copies of authorization letters and special powers of attorney (SPA).

 

The BPI said Ong manipulated the accounts of her relatives, which included five deposit accounts, two of them in foreign currency.

 

A security camera footage showed she processed twenty-two unauthorized over-the-counter withdrawals amounting to PHP72,820.

 

BPI also accused Ong of instructing a teller to process four more unauthorized withdrawals that exceeded the threshold and should have required reporting the transaction.

 

The footage recorded her forging the signatures of her relatives.

 

A labor arbiter dismissed Ong’s complaint for illegal dismissal but directed BPI to pay her PHP35,172 representing her 13th-month pay and unused sick leave credits.

 

The NLRC noted that the employee presented the supposed SPA from her relatives only when she was already under investigation by the bank.

 

Even if the relatives knew or requested the transactions, “her act of withdrawing without first presenting the SPA and forging their signatures is without a doubt, unauthorized.”

 

In turning down the employee’s complaint, the CA said, “considering that their business and industry are imbued with public interest, banks are required to exercise extraordinary diligence, which is more than that of a good father of a family, in managing their transactions.”

 

“By the very nature of their work in handling millions of pesos in daily transactions, the degree of responsibility, care and trustworthiness expected of bank employees and officials is far greater than those of ordinary clerks and employees,” the tribunal ruled. (PNA)