Dear PAO,
I was offered the position of general manager. In the job offer, the company have stated the proposed salary and the actual date of my assumption. I agreed to the terms and signed the job offer, and my acceptance was acknowledged by the president of the company. However, one week before my assumption, the company withdrew the offer. I told them that I will be filing a labor case, but they said that since my employment had yet to begin, they were not obligated to fulfill their offer. I want to know if they are legally correct. Thank you.
-Jasmine
Dear Jasmine,
No, the company is not legally correct. On the contrary, especially in your situation, a signed and accepted job offer already creates rights and obligations that you and your employer are legally obligated to reciprocally fulfill.
In Aragones vs. Alltech Biotechnology Corporation, et al., G.R. No. 251736, April 2, 2025, Ponente: Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, the Supreme Court was confronted with a similar issue where it ruled that a job offer, once accepted, cannot be withdrawn, saying:
“A contract is perfected upon the concurrence of the following requisites: (1) the consent of the contracting parties; (2) an object certain, which is the subject matter of the contract; and (3) the cause of the obligation. “Consent” is manifested by the meeting of the offer and the acceptance upon the thing and the cause which are to constitute the contract.For consent to be valid, the “offer” must be certain, and the “acceptance” must be absolute. A contract is deemed perfected from the time the acceptance is made known to the offeror. Without the offeror's knowledge of the acceptance, there is no meeting of the minds of the parties, and thus, no real concurrence of offer and acceptance.
An employment contract, like any other contract, is perfected at the moment the parties come to agree upon its terms and conditions, and thereafter, concur in the essential elements thereof. xxx
Furthermore, even assuming arguendo that the commencement date on the signed Job Offer partakes of a condition, such condition would nevertheless be considered constructively fulfilled. This is because Alltech effectively prevented its fulfillment by unilaterally withdrawing the job offer due to the alleged abolition of the STMP position. Article 1186 of the Civil Code clearly provides that, “[t]he condition shall be deemed fulfilled when the obligor voluntarily prevents its fulfillment.” Consequently, Aragones would still be considered an employee of Alltech.”
Thus, from the time you communicated your acceptance of the job offer, your employment contract was already perfected. Contemporaneous with the perfection of such contract was the birth of the rights and obligations indicated in the offer, the breach of which may give rise to a cause of action against the employer-company. The deferment of your assumption to the office is merely suspensive in nature and should not affect the existence of your obligation to render services and the company’s concurrent obligation to pay wages.
We hope that we were able to answer your queries. This advice was based solely on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. Our opinion may vary when other facts are changed or elaborated.
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