Seeking advice -- legal action against employer

[badkuk]

Hi all,

Some of you may recall that i started a thread about starting a business; consider this thread as part two of an ongoing saga...


Long story short, up until 2 years ago, part of my responsibilities is to make sure our IT infrastructure was adequate. Now, as early as 2013, this "take charge" guy from our head office, out of the blue, suddenly told me that he and his newly formed systems group were going to take over this task. i've dealt with this "take charge" guy in the past -- malabong kausap -- so that early, i suspected he was up to no good. Nonetheless, he outranked me, so i have been giving him my full cooperation since Day 1 at the office.

Fast forward to 2016, 2 years after the "take charge" guy took over the infrastructure duties, i was given a verbal warning. i was told that the head office lost confidence in my capabilities; apparently e mga pinapagawa sa akin dati na hindi ko raw ginagawa, that matagal daw yung response time ko, hindi ko raw pinaprioritize ang ilang trabaho, blah blah blah.

Fortunately, i kept my email. i have since made multiple copies of them, because i have a feeling that things are being railroaded against me. Basically i contested the verbal warning, and, at least in my mind, i was able to refute the allegations one by one. i did this at the start of the week, up to now i have not received one single reply from management:


(Please bear in mind, the infrastructure duties had already been taken off my hands at this point)

1. In 2014, they claimed that i was not able to fix the Wifi problem at our office in timely fashion
-- the email i provided clearly indicated that the problem was addressed within 24 hours.
-- i even have an email confirmation from the actual users that the WiFi had been working after the fix

2. In 2015, they claimed that i wasn't able to resolve internet issues
-- the emails clearly stated that i was able to diagnose that the problem were the WiFi routers, not the internet link per se
-- the problem was fixed within 24 hours of initial report
-- i even have an email confirmation from the actual users that the problem got fixed.


3. This one takes the cake. They claimed that these were clearly part of my responsibilities to take care of the infrastructure, at least between 2014 - 2015
-- i was able to present email that clearly indicated that another person told me in writing that he and his newly formed support group will be taking care of the infrastructure. The two major incidents i mentioned occured about a year after i was told this.
-- i talked to the management here, as early as 2013, about the "take charge guy" taking over the infra duties, and i requested clarification as to what my duties are. Management, never, in two years, did they give me a clear answer.


My concern is that, kung hahayaan ko lang at hindi ako aangal, it would be tantamount to admitting fault. imho if i do that, it will affect my future employment, be it in this company or another, because as far as their version of the truth is concerned, ako ang pumalpak, kaya nila ako nasisante. i'm not sure how hiring is done these days, but they do call up your former employer to request feedback, right? If i get laid off for redundancy, that's one thing: but now they're making it appear that i'm incompetent and irresponsible.

At least in my mind, i had presented clear, written proof(in electronic form) that the allegations were untrue; they, on the other hand, have no proof na pumalpak ako.

As to why they're doing this... i'm guessing the "take charge" guy at our head office wanted to impress the boss by revamping our infrastructure(basically network, wifi, etc), failed to do so in the past 2 years, and then somehow made me the fall guy. i find it very strange that the warning came from our head office, who don't really pass by PH that much.

To me the silence of the management is very ominous: i really feel that they're going to railroad the process. Sa amin, if you get a verbal warning, they would observe your performance for 3-6 months and see if there's any improvement -- my gut instinct tells me i have drastically less time than that...and my gut has been quite accurate as of late. i feel they'll just sit on the case and let the time run out.


So patanong naman: what's the best thing to do in a situation like this? Normally i really wouldn't consider legal action, but i just can't let this one slide. Kukunsulta ba ako sa abogado/law firm first, then hear their recommendation?

tia