EXTENSION OF PROBATIONARY EMPLOYMENT IS ALLOWED WHEN VOLUNTARILY AGREED UPON BY PARTIES

There is no prohibition on the extension of probationary employment period provided that the employee voluntarily agreed to the extension. The Supreme Court acknowledges the extension as an act of compassion of the employer to the employee who failed to meet the standards of the probationary employment. The new period is given to the employee so that he can improve and prove that he is a qualified employee.

(G.R. No. 74246) The extension of probation was ex gratia, an act of liberality on the part of the employer affording a second chance to make good after having initially failed to prove his worth as an employee. Such an act cannot now unjustly be turned against said employer's account to compel it to keep on its payroll one who could not perform according to its work standards. The law, surely, was never meant to produce such an inequitable result.

By voluntarily agreeing to an extension of the probationary period, the employee in effect waived any benefit attaching to the completion of said period if he still failed to make the grade during the period of extension. The Court finds nothing in the law which by any fair interpretation prohibits such a waiver. And no public policy protecting the employee and the security of his tenure is served by prescribing voluntary agreements which, by reasonably extending the period of probation, actually improve and further a probationary employee's prospects of demonstrating his fitness for regular employment.

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