6/7/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly when he was dismissed from work. As cited above, a valid dismissal requires substantive and procedural due process. As regards the latter, the employer must give the concerned employee at least two notices before his or her ten11ination. Specifically, the employer must inform the employee of the cause or causes for his or her termination, and thereafter, the employer's decision to dismiss him. Aside from the notice requirement, the employee must be accorded the opportunity to be heard.[48] Here, no prior notice of purported infraction, and such opportunity to explain on any accusation against him was given to Dagasdas. He was simply given a notice of termination. In fact, it appears that ITM intended not to comply with the twin notice requirement. As above-quoted, under the new contract, ITM reserved in its favor the right to terminate the contract without serving any notice to Dagasdas in specified cases, which included such situation where the employer decides to dismiss the employee within the probationary period. Without doubt, ITM violated the due process requirement in dismissing an employee. Lastly, while it is shown that Dagasdas executed a waiver in favor of his employer, the same does not preclude him from filing this suit. Generally, the employee's waiver or quitclaim cannot prevent the employee from demanding benefits to which he or she is entitled, and from filing an illegal dismissal case. This is because waiver or quitclaim is looked upon with disfavor, and is frowned upon for being contrary to public policy. Unless it can be established that the person executing the waiver voluntarily did so, with full understanding of its contents, and with reasonable and credible consideration, the same is not a valid and binding undertaking. Moreover, the burden to prove that the waiver or quitclaim was voluntarily executed is with the employer.[49] In this case, however, neither did GPGS nor its principal, ITM, successfully discharged its burden. GPGS and/or ITM failed to show that Dagasdas indeed voluntarily waived his claims against the employer. Indeed, even if Dagasdas signed a quitclaim, it does not necessarily follow that he freely and voluntarily agreed to waive all his claims against his employer. Besides, there was no reasonable consideration stipulated in said quitclaim considering that it only determined the actual payment due to Dagasdas from February 11, 2008 to April 30, 2008. Verily, this quitclaim, under the semblance of a final settlement, cannot absolve GPGS nor ITM from liability arising from the employment contract of Dagasdas.[50] All told, the dismissal of Dagasdas was without any valid cause and due process of law. Hence, the NLRC properly ruled that Dagasdas was illegally dismissed. Evidently, it was an error on the part of the CA to hold that the NLRC committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when the NLRC ruled for Dagasdas. WHEREFORE, the Petition is GRANTED. The Decision dated September 26, 2012 and elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/64310 8/12