Labor standards

Chapter 1. General Provisions

Article 1: Labor Code of the Philippines P D442
Labor
Exertion by human beings or physical or mental efforts, or both, towards the
production of goods and services
Sector/group in a society, which derives its livelihood chiefly from rendition of
work or services in exchange of compensation under managerial direction
Article 2: Date of Effectivity: November 1, 1974, promulgated May 1, 1974
Labor Legislation
Statues, regulations and jurisprudence governing the relations between capital
and labor, by producing for certain employment standards and other incidents of
employment
Labor Relations
Enable workers to obtain from their employers more than the minimum benefits
set by labor standard law
Defines the status, rights and duties as well as the institutional mechanisms that
govern the individual and collective interactions between employers, employees
and their representative
Labor Law
Governs rights and duties of employers and employees with the terms and
conditions of employment, labor disputes arising from collective bargaining and
its own terms and conditions
Labor standards
Minimum standards as to wages, hours of work and other terms and conditions of
employment that employers must provide their employees
Social Legislation
Laws that provide particular kinds of protection or benefits to society or segments
thereof in furtherance of social justice
Requires payment of benefits by government agencies to the worker or his family
when and while he cannot work by reason of sickness, disability, old age, death
and other similar hazards
Includes statues intended to enhance the welfare of the people even when there
is no employer-employee relationship i.e. agrarian reform law
Labor legislation
Social legislation
Effect of
Directly affected (i.e. wages)
Effects of employment (i.e.
employment
compensation for injuries)
Purpose
Meet daily needs of workers
Long range benefits
Coverage
Employment for profit or gain
Both profit and non-profit
Effect on employee
Affects the work
Affects the life
Payor
Employer
Government agencies
NB: Labor laws are social legislation but not all social legislation are labor laws.
Sources of Labor laws (C3LIP)
1. Constitution
2. Contract/CBA
3. Company Policy
4. Legislation
5. IRR
6. Past practices of the company
Basic Rights Guaranteed by the Constitution
1. Labor Standards (Tresh)
a. Security of tenure
b. Receive a living wage
c. Just share in the fruits of production
d. Work under Humane Conditions
2. Labor Relations (COPE)
a. Conduct CB or negotiation with mgmt.
b. Organize themselves
c. Participate in policy and decision-making process

d.

Engage in peaceful, concerted activities i.e. strike (A XIII, S3)

Equalities guaranteed by the Constitution and Social Justice (POL-VG)

1. Political rights
2. Opportunity
3. Before the law
4. Between values received
5. Sharing of thee social and material goods on the basis of efforts exerted in their
production
Constitutional Mandates
Article II DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES PRINCIPLES
Section 9. The State shall promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure
the prosperity and independence of the nation and free the people from poverty
through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment,
a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life for all.
Section 10. The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national
development.
Section 11. The State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees
full respect for human rights.
Section 13. The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building and
shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social
well-being. It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism and nationalism, and
encourage their involvement in public and civic affairs.
Section 14. The State recognizes the role of women in nation-building, and shall
ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men.
Section 18. The State affirms labor as a primary social economic force. It shall
protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare.
Section 20. The State recognizes the indispensable role of the private sector,
encourages private enterprise, and provides incentives to needed investments.
Article III Bill of Rights
Section 1. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due
process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.
Section 4. No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression,
or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the
government for redress of grievances.
Section 7. The right of the people to information on matters of public concern
shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents and papers
pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government
research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen,
subject to such limitations as may be provided by law.
Section 8. The right of the people, including those employed in the public and
private sectors, to form unions, associations, or societies for purposes not
contrary to law shall not be abridged.
Section 10. No law impairing the obligation of contracts shall be passed.
Section 16. All persons shall have the right to a speedy disposition of their cases
before all judicial, quasi-judicial, or administrative bodies.

Section 18.2. No involuntary servitude in any form shall exist except as a

punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.

Article XII NATIONAL ECONOMY AND PATRIMONY

Section 12. The State shall promote the preferential use of Filipino labor, domestic
materials and locally produced goods, and adopt measures that help make them
competitive.

Article XIII SOCIAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1. The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures
that protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce
social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by
equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the common good.
To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and
disposition of property and its increments.
Section 2. The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create
economic opportunities based on freedom of initiative and self-reliance.

LABOR
Section 3. The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas,
organized and unorganized, and promote full employment and equality of
employment opportunities for all.
It shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective
bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful concerted activities, including the right
to strike in accordance with law. They shall be entitled to security of tenure,
humane conditions of work, and a living wage. They shall also participate in policy
and decision-making processes affecting their rights and benefits as may be
provided by law.
The State shall promote the principle of shared responsibility between workers
and employers and the preferential use of voluntary modes in settling disputes,
including conciliation, and shall enforce their mutual compliance therewith to
foster industrial peace.
The State shall regulate the relations between workers and employers,
recognizing the right of labor to its just share in the fruits of production and the
right of enterprises to reasonable returns to investments, and to expansion and
growth.
Section 13. The State shall establish a special agency for disabled person for their
rehabilitation, self-development, and self-reliance, and their integration into the
mainstream of society.
WOMEN
Section 14. The State shall protect working women by providing safe and healthful
working conditions, taking into account their maternal functions, and such
facilities and opportunities that will enhance their welfare and enable them to
realize their full potential in the service of the nation.
ARTICLE XVI GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section 8. The State shall, from time to time, review to increase the pensions and
other benefits due to retirees of both the government and the private sectors.
Related Laws
1. Civil Code
Art. 19. Every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the performance of
his duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and observe honesty and good
faith.
Art. 1700. The relations between capital and labor are not merely contractual.
They are so impressed with public interest that labor contracts must yield to the
common good.

Therefore, such contracts are subject to the special laws on labor unions,
collective bargaining, strikes and lockouts, closed shop, wages, working
conditions, hours of labor and similar subjects.
Art. 1701. Neither capital nor labor shall act oppressively against the other, or
impair the interest or convenience of the public.
Art. 1702. In case of doubt, all labor legislation and all labor contracts shall be
construed in favor of the safety and decent living for the laborer.

Art. 1703. No contract which practically amounts to involuntary servitude, under

any guise whatsoever, shall be valid.
Art. 1708. The laborer's wages shall not be subject to execution or attachment,
except for debts incurred for food, shelter, clothing and medical attendance.
Art. 1709. The employer shall neither seize nor retain any tool or other articles
belonging to the laborer.
Art. 1710. Dismissal of laborers shall be subject to the supervision of the
Government, under special laws.
2. Revised Penal Code
Art. 272. Slavery. The penalty of prision mayor and a fine of not exceeding
10,000 pesos shall be imposed upon anyone who shall purchase, sell, kidnap or
detain a human being for the purpose of enslaving him. If the crime be committed
for the purpose of assigning the offended party to some immoral traffic, the
penalty shall be imposed in its maximum period.
Art. 273. Exploitation of child labor. The penalty of prision correccional in its
minimum and medium periods and a fine not exceeding 500 pesos shall be
imposed upon anyone who, under the pretext of reimbursing himself of a debt
incurred by an ascendant, guardian or person entrusted with the custody of a
minor, shall, against the latter's will, retain him in his service.
Art. 274. Services rendered under compulsion in payment of debt. The penalty
of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum
period shall be imposed upon any person who, in order to require or enforce the
payment of a debt, shall compel the debtor to work for him, against his will, as
household servant or farm laborer.
Art. 278. Exploitation of minors. The penalty of prision correccional in its
minimum and medium periods and a fine not exceeding 500 pesos shall be
imposed upon:

Any person who shall cause any boy or girl under sixteen years of age to perform
any dangerous feat of balancing, physical strength, or contortion.
Any person who, being an acrobat, gymnast, rope-walker, diver, wild-animal
tamer or circus manager or engaged in a similar calling, shall employ in
exhibitions of these kinds children under sixteen years of age who are not his
children or descendants.
Any person engaged in any of the callings enumerated in the next paragraph
preceding who shall employ any descendant of his under twelve years of age in
such dangerous exhibitions.
Any ascendant, guardian, teacher or person entrusted in any capacity with the
care of a child under sixteen years of age, who shall deliver such child
gratuitously to any person following any of the callings enumerated in paragraph
2 hereof, or to any habitual vagrant or beggar.
If the delivery shall have been made in consideration of any price, compensation,
or promise, the penalty shall in every case be imposed in its maximum period.
In either case, the guardian or curator convicted shall also be removed from office
as guardian or curator; and in the case of the parents of the child, they may be
deprived, temporarily or perpetually, in the discretion of the court, of their
parental authority.
Any person who shall induce any child under sixteen years of age to abandon the
home of its ascendants, guardians, curators, or teachers to follow any person
engaged in any of the callings mentioned in paragraph 2 hereof, or to accompany
any habitual vagrant or beggar.

Art. 289. Formation, maintenance and prohibition of combination of capital or

labor through violence or threats. The penalty of arresto mayor and a fine not
exceeding 300 pesos shall be imposed upon any person who, for the purpose of

organizing, maintaining or preventing coalitions or capital or labor, strike of

laborers or lock-out of employees, shall employ violence or threats in such a
degree as to compel or force the laborers or employers in the free and legal
exercise of their industry or work, if the act shall not constitute a more serious
offense in accordance with the provisions of this Code.

Art. 291. Revealing secrets with abuse of office. The penalty of arresto mayor
and a fine not exceeding 500 pesos shall be imposed upon any manager,
employee, or servant who, in such capacity, shall learn the secrets of his principal
or master and shall reveal such secrets.

Art. 292. Revelation of industrial secrets. The penalty of prision correccional in

its minimum and medium periods and a fine not exceeding 500 pesos shall be
imposed upon the person in charge, employee or workman of any manufacturing
or industrial establishment who, to the prejudice of the owner thereof, shall reveal
the secrets of the industry of the latter.
3. Special Laws
a. SSS Law (RA 8282)
b. GSIS Law (RA 8291)
c. National Health Insurance Act (RA 7875)
d. Paternity Leave Act (RA 8187)
e. Retirement Pay Law (RA 7641)
f. HDMF Law (RA 9679)
g. Anti-Sexual Harassment Act (RA 7877)
h. Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and
Discrimination Act (RA 7610 amended by RA 9231)
i. 13th Month Pay Law (PD 851)
j. Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 (RA 8042)
k. CARL (RA 6657)
l. Magna Carta for Public Health Workers (RA 7305)
m. Limited Portability Law (RA 7699)
n. Act allowing Employment of Night Workers (RA 10151)
o. Magna Carta for Disabled Persons (RA 7277)
p. Domestic Workers act or Batas Kasambahay (RA 10361)

NB:
-

Police power as a basis for enacting laws on labor

Purposely for social justice
o Neither communism nor despotism nor atomism nor anarchy but for the
humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces
by the state so that justice in its rational and objectively secular
conception may at least be approximated.
o The promotion of the welfare of the people, adoption by the government
the measures calculated to ensure economic stability of all the component
elements of the society, through the maintenance of proper economic and
social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community
based on salus populi est suprema lex (The welfare of the people shall be the
supreme law)
Welfare legislation provides for the minimum economic security of the worker and
his family in case of loss of earnings due to death, old age, disability, dismissal,
injury or disease. Requires payment of benefits by the government agencies to
the worker o his family
Welfare legislation
Social legislation
As to
Minimum economic security of the
Particular kind of protection or
benefits
worker and his family in case of loss
benefits to the society or segments
of earning
thereof in furtherance of social
justice

Basis

Employer-employee relationship

No need for such relationship

Employee
Any person who performs services for an employer in which either or both mental
and physical efforts are used and who receives compensation for such services,
where there is employer-employee relationship
Employer
One for whom employees work and who pays their wages or salaries
Any person natural or juridical, domestic or foreign who carries on in the
Philippines any trade, business, industry, undertaking or activity of any kind and
uses the services of another person who is under his order as regards the
employment (RA 1161, Sec 8 par c)
Article
97

ARTICLE
166, PD
626

Book V,
Article
212
Labor
Relations

Article
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Limits:

Employer
"Employer" includes any person acting
directly or indirectly in the interest of an
employer in relation to an employee and
shall include the government and all its
branches, subdivisions and
instrumentalities, all government-owned
or controlled corporations and
institutions, as well as non-profit private
institutions, or organizations.
any person, natural or judicial,
employing the services of the employee
(par F)

Includes any person acting in the

interest of an employer, directly or
indirectly. The term shall not include any
labor organization or any of its officers
or agents except when acting as
employer.

Employee
"Employee" includes any individual
employed by an employer.

any persons compulsory covered by

the GSIS under Commonwealth Act
numbered one hundred eighty-six, as
amended, including members of the
Armed Forces of the Philippines, and
any person employed as casual,
emergency, temporary, substitute or
contractual; or any person
compulsorily covered by SSS under
RA 1161, as amended. (Par G)
Includes any person in the employ of
an employer. The term shall not be
limited to the employees of a
particular employer, unless the Code
so explicitly states. It shall include
any individual whose work has ceased
as a result of or in connection with
any current labor dispute or because
of any unfair labor practice if he has
not obtained any other substantially
equivalent and regular employment.

3: Declaration of Basic Policy (AREPA)

Afford protection of labor
Promote full employment
Ensure equal work opportunities regardless of sex, race or creed
Regulate the relations between workers and employers
Assure rights of workers to (CJS2)
a. Collective bargaining
b. Just and humane conditions of work
c. Self-organization
d. Security of tenure

1.

Protection of rights of workers cannot justify disregard of relevant facts in the

construction of the text and applicable rules in order to arrive at disposition in
favor of an employee (PAL vs NLRC GR 87698, Sept 24, 1991)
2. Courts cannot decide based on sympathy
3. When both are at fault, no one is entitled for protection
4. Protection to labor is not a license to condone wrong
Article 4: Construction in Favor of Labor
If theres doubt as to the meaning of the legal and contractual provision, it will be
construed in favor of LABOR
Limitations
o Cannot be pursued to the point of deliberately committing a miscarriage
of justice
o Law recognizes management has rights which are to be respected
Reasons for affording greater protection to employees:
o Doctrine: those who have less shall have more in law
o Employer stands on higher footing than the employee
o Greater supply than demand for labor
o Need for employment by labor comes from vital and even more desperate
necessity
Doctrine of Management Prerogative inherent right to employer to regulate
according to his own discretion and judgments all aspects of employment i.e.
hiring, work assignments, working methods, time and place and manner of work,
supervision, transfer of employees, lay off, discipline dismissal and recall of
employees. The employer has the right to (Cop-STR)
o Conduct business
o Prescribe rules
o Select and hire employees
o Transfer or discharge employees
o Return of investment and expansion of business
Limitations of Management Prerogatives (LECEG)
o law
o employment contract
o CBA
o Employer policy or practice
o General principles of fair play and justice
Article 5: Rules and Regulations
Issued by DOLE
Effective 15 days after publication
Filing of 3 CTC of admin rules and regulations with UP Law Center; Rev Admin
Code 1987 Book VII, Chapter 2, Sec 3 (1) and Sec 4
DOLE vest quasi-legislative power limited to its charter
Article 6: Applicability
GR: all workers, whether agricultural or non-agricultural, including employees in a GOCC
under Corporation Code (A254)
Exceptions: (CELFI)
1. Corporate officers/ intra-corporate disputes under PD 902-A
2. Employees of GOCC with original or special charter
3. Local water districts except when NLRC jurisdiction is invoked
4. Foreign Governments
5. International Agencies
NB:
Private school teachers security of tenure is governed but the Manual of
Regulations of Private schools and not by Labor Code
The presence or absence of employer-employee relationship is a labor law
question itself
Chapter 2: Emancipation of tenants

BOOK 1: Pre-Employment
7

Article 12: Policy of the State (Pro2-Fac2-ReSI)

1. To promote and maintain a state of full employment through improved manpower training,
allocation and utilization;
2.

To protect every citizen desiring to work locally or overseas by securing for him the best
possible terms and conditions of employment;

3.

To facilitate a free choice of available employment by persons seeking work in conformity with
the national interest;

4.

To facilitate and regulate the movement of workers in conformity with the national interest;

5.

To regulate the employment of aliens, including the establishment of a registration and/or

work permit system;

6.

To strengthen the network of public employment offices and rationalize the participation of the
private sector in the recruitment and placement of workers, locally and overseas, to serve
national development objectives;

7.

To insure careful selection of Filipino workers for overseas employment in order to protect the
good name of the Philippines abroad.

Title 1: Recruitment and Placement of Workers

Chapter 1: General Provisions
Article 13: Definitions
Worker any member of the labor force, WON employed.
Recruitment and placement
any act of (CETCHUP) canvassing, enlisting, transporting, contracting, hiring,
utilizing or procuring workers and includes (CRAP) contract services, referrals
advertising, or promising for employment, locally or aboard whether for profit or
not.
Includes act of referral, act of passing along or forwarding of an applicant for
employment after an initial interview of a selected applicant for employment to a
selected employer, placement officer or bureau
License
A document issued by the Department of
Labor authorizing a person or entity to
operate a private employment agency.

Authority
a document issued by the Department of
Labor authorizing a person or association to
engage in recruitment and placement
activities as a private recruitment entity.

Private employment agency

Right to charge fee
Who shall be
recruited
Source of authority

Yes, direct or indirect from the

workers or the employers or both
Overseas deployment only
Document called license

Private recruitment
entity
None
Both local and abroad
Document called authority

NB:

"Seaman" means any person employed in a vessel engaged in maritime navigation.

"Overseas employment" means employment of a worker outside the Philippines.