SC prohibits private companies from forcing employees to retire without consent

MANILA — The Supreme Court has ruled that employees in the private sector who did not expressly agree to an early retirement cannot be retired from service before the age of 65.

In a decision of the 5th Division promulgated on June 29, 2026, the court partly granted the petition of Rodolfo Ondevilla and found Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Laguna guilty of illegal dismissal.

In 2019, when Ondevilla turned 60 years old, CSJL considered his appointment expired, following his reassignment to a lower position.

Ondevilla filed a complaint for illegal dismissal and won his case before the National Labor Relations Commission.

The Court of Appeals also found Ondevilla illegally dismissed but ruled that he had agreed to retire based on a letter he sent to the school.

But Ondevilla challenged the ruling of the CA and insisted before the SC that he never agreed to retire before turning 65.

The SC agreed with Ondevilla, noting that under the Labor Code, the retirement age is set in an employee’s contract and if none exists, the law sets the compulsory retirement age at 65 and the minimum age for optional retirement at 60.

“Settled is the rule that an employee in the private sector who did not expressly agree to an early retirement cannot be retired from the service before he reaches the age of 65 years,” the SC said in the decision penned by Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando.

The SC stated that Ondevilla’s illegal dismissal complaint showed that he had no intention of opting for an early retirement.

“At the risk of sounding repetitive, jurisprudence ordains that a retirement plan involving optional retirement requires the explicit, voluntary, free, and uncompelled consent of the employee,” the court said.

The SC also awarded Ondevilla his retirement benefits covering his employment from 2004 to 2024, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65.