Introduction to Law

Labor Law

Labor Law
●​ Laws that govern the rights and obligations of employers and employees, providing
as well for the rules by which such rights and obligations may be enforced.
Parts of Labor Law
1.​ Labor Standards
●​ The minimum requirements prescribed by existing laws, rules and regulations
relating to wages, hours of work, cost of living, allowance, and other monetary
and welfare benefits
●​ Labor Code Book I to IV
2.​ Labor Relations
3.​ Social Legislations
●​ Laws that are designed to uplift the condition of workers or employees as
members of the community and as human beings with recognized dignity.
●​ Labor Code Book V to VII

Distinction Between Labor Laws and Social Legislation

Labor Law
●​ Affect the work of the employee
●​ Generally covers employment for profit or gain
●​ Directly affect matters of actual employment like wages and labor hours
●​ Designed to meet employee’s daily needs for sustenance
Social Legislation
●​ Affect the life of the employee
●​ Covers employment for gain or even non-profit enterprises
●​ Govern the effect of employment like payment of compensation for injuries
sustained at work, medical services available to an employee who gets sick
●​ Involves long-range plans, benefits, or aspects

Labor Standards
●​ Provides for the basic requirement as provided by law that employers must provide
for their employees be it in the workplace or in the matter of wages
●​ Conditions of employment
○​ Minimum standards prescribed by law in relation to work and applies to
employees in all establishments and undertakings whether for profit or not,
 but not to government employees, managerial members of the family of the
employer who are dependent on him for support, domestic helpers, persons
in the personal service of another, and workers who are paid by results
●​ Employer-Employee Relationship
○​ The contractual relationship between an employer and his employee
○​ 4-fold test
■​ Selects and engages the employee
■​ Pays his wages
■​ Has the power to dismiss him
■​ Has control over his work (The most powerful/the most important)

Kinds of Employment
●​ Probationary
○​ One who, for a given period of time, is being observed and evaluated to
determine whether or not he is qualified for permanent employment
●​ Regular
○​ An employment is deemed regular when the activities performed by the
employee are usually necessary or desirable in the usual business of the
employer
●​ Project
○​ Employees who are hired for carrying out a separate job, distinct from the
other undertakings of the company, the scope and duration of which has been
determined and made known to the employees at the time of employment
and their services may be lawfully terminated upon the completion of the
project
●​ Casual
○​ One who is neither a regular employee nor an employee with a fixed
employment for a specific project or undertaking determined at the time of
employment or seasonal employee
●​ Fixed-Term Employment
○​ A contract which specifies that employment will last only for a definite period,
is not per se illegal or against public policy
●​ Field Personnel
○​ Non-agricultural employees who regularly perform their duties away from the
principal place of business or branch offices of the employer and whose
actual hours of work in the field cannot be determined with reasonable
certainty
 ●​ Managerial
○​ One who is vested with powers or prerogatives to lay down and execute
management policies and/or hire, transfer, suspend, lay-off, recall, dischards,
assign, or discipline employees

Is a project employee the same as a fixed-term employee?

Working Hours
●​ Does the 8-hour work include meal period or break time?
○​ The 8-hour period does not include the meal break. Nowhere in the law may it
be inferred that employees must take their meals within the company
premises. Employees are not prohibited from going out of the premises as
long as they return to their posts on time
●​ Art. 85 (Labor Code) mandates every employer to give his employees not less than
sixty (60) minutes time-off for their regular meals
○​ Rest periods or coffee breaks running from 5 to 20 minutes shall be
considered as compensable working time

Entitlements and Benefits

●​ Wage
○​ Compensation for manual labor, skilled or unskilled, paid at stated times,
measured by the day, week, month or season
●​ Salary
○​ Denotes a higher degree of employment or a superior grade of services, and
implies a position of office
●​ Every employee shall be paid a night shift differential of not less than ten percent
(10%) of his regular wage for each hour of work performed between ten in the
evening and six in the morning
●​ Overtime Work
○​ Work performed beyond eight (8) hours a day
○​ An additional compensation equivalent to his regular wage plus at least 25%
thereof (125%)
○​ Work performed beyond 8 hours on a holiday or rest day shall be paid an
additional compensation equivalent to the rate of the first 8 hours on a holiday
or rest day plus at least 30% thereof
●​ Weekly Rest Periods/Employer’s Right to Require Work on a Rest Day
 ○​ The law mandates that every employer, whether operating for profit or not,
provides each of his employees a rest period of not less than 24 consecutive
hours after every 6 consecutive normal work days. Factors such as
preference of worker, prerogative of employer, and DOLE regulations shall
play a part in the determination when such rest day will be given
●​ Holiday Pay
○​ Every worker shall be paid his regular daily wage during regular holidays,
except in retail and service establishments regularly employing less than 10
workers.
●​ Service Incentive Leave
○​ The law grants to every employee who has rendered at least 1 year of service
to a service incentive leave of 5 days with pay annually
●​ 13th Month Pay
○​ The law directs all employers to pay all their employees, regardless of the
nature of their employment, a 13th month pay not later than December 24th
of every year, provided that they have worked for at least 1 month during a
calendar year
○​ The 13th month pay of employees paid a fixed or guaranteed wage plus sales
commissions must be equivalent to 1/12 of the total earnings (fixed or
guaranteed wage-cum-sales commissions) during the calendar year

Management Prerogative
●​ The right of management to regulate according to its own discretion and judgement
all aspects of employment, including hiring, work assignments, working methods,
time, place, manner of work, tools to be used, processes to be followed, supervision
of workers, working regulations, transfer of employees, work supervision, lay-off of
workers, discipline and dismissal of workers, and recall of work
●​ Non-Entitlement of Managerial Employees
○​ An employee who falls squarely under the category of “officers or members
of a managerial staff” is exempted from payment of overtime pay, premium
pay for holidays and rest days and service incentive leave pay

Labor Relations
●​ Deals with the relationship between employer and employee as well as employee
with fellow employees
●​ Areas covered:
○​ Disciplinary action, grievance machinery, arbitration;
 ○​ Labor Organizations;
○​ Labor Disputes;
○​ Unfair Labor Practices;
○​ Collective Bargaining Agreements;
○​ Strikes and Lockouts; and
○​ Termination by employer/employee

●​ Termination by Employer
○​ Just Cause: Art. 297: Separation pay not required
○​ Authorized Cause: Art. 298: Separation pay required
●​ Termination by Employee
○​ Art. 300
○​ General rule: No separation pay (resignation)
○​ Exception: If stipulated in contract; CBA; Company Policy

Social Legislations
“Those who have less in life should have more in law”
●​ Statutes that level the playing field between the employers and the employees.
●​ Such laws endeavor to strike a balance between the rights of workers, vis-a-vis the
underlying goal of employers to generate profit
●​ Social Justice
○​ Neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the
humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by
the State so that justice in its rational and objective secular concept may be at
least approximated.
○​ Examples of Social Legislations
●​ SSS Law (R.A. No. 8262)
●​ GSIS Law (R.A. No. 8291)
●​ Limited Portability Law (R.A. No. 7699)
○​ Combine SSS and GSIS contribution
●​ PhilHealth
●​ Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund)