B.
LABOR STANDARDS LAW
LABOR CODE – ATTY CACHO’S BOOK
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS
LABOR
A. BROADEST SENSE
Every possible human exertion including mental,
physical and even spiritual
B. LIMITED SENSE
Bodily or intellectual exertion done wholly or partly
for a purpose other than the pleasure derived from
its performance
C. PHILIPPINE LAW
Physical and mental work performed by an
employee, and physical work performed by anyone,
whether employed or not.
LABOR LAW
Body of statutes, rules and doctrines that define
state policies on labor and employment and
governs the rights and duties of workers and
employers respecting terms and conditions of
employment by prescribing certain standards
therefore, or by establishing a legal framework
within which better terms and conditions of work
are obtained through collective bargaining or other
concerted activity
ELEMENTS OF LABOR LAW
A. LABOR POLICIES
- Principles and guidelines that define State
policies regarding employment
- May be classified into two:
o Constitutional (Section 3, Article
13)
o Statutory (Book I and II, Labor
Code)
- Pertains to the body of statutes, rules and
doctrines that governs the rights and duties
of workers and employers respecting terms
and conditions of employment by
prescribing certain standards.
STATUTES
Rule of conduct with obligatory recourse for
observance and enacted by the rule making
authority – legislative department
STATUTES IN OUR JURISDICTION THAT
REFERS TO LABOR
- Labor Code
o BOOK III – Labor Standards
 Holiday Pay
 Special Holiday Pay
 Overtime Pay
 Differential Pay
- Special Labor Laws
o SSS Law
o Maternity Benefits
o Salary Standardization Law
Wage Orders
o 13th month pay
o Paternity Leave
o Magna Carta for Women
o RA No. 9262
C. LABOR RELATIONS LAW
- It is the body of statutes, rules and doctrines
that governs the rights and duties of workers
and employers by establishing a legal
framework within which better terms and
conditions of work could be obtained
- Sets the parameters whereby workers may
undertake concerted activities to secure
better conditions of employment than those
prescribed by labor standards law
RELATIONSHIPS AND DISTINCTIONS
LABOR STANDARDS
- Prescribe the demarcation in terms of
conditions of employment and are
essentially substantive
 - Their purpose is either SL – treats matters remote or indirect to
o Protective workers
o Ameliorative
- Fixed by law
AS TO APPLICATION
LABOR RELATIONS LL – Labor law provides benefits to workers
actively employed
- Provides the procedure that governs the
methods by which terms and conditions SL – concerned with those whose
ABOVE the demarcation provided by labor employment is interrupted by sickness, disability,
standards law may be obtained death, retirement, or other causes
- Terms and conditions however are
BEYOND the labor standards and NOT
FOUND on labor standards, but in SOCIAL JUSTICE
collective bargaining agreements,
- Calalang v. Williams
arbitration awards, and decisions
- President Magsaysay
o “Those who have less in life should
have more in law”
SOCIAL LAW
- Body of rules and statute aimed at
SOURCES OF THE POWER TO ENACT
protecting the general welfare of all
LABOR LAWS
people with SPECIAL REFERENCE to
labor A. CONSTITUTION
a. Section 18, Article 2
b. Section 3, Article 13
JUSTIFICATION OF WHY SOCIAL LAWS
ARE LABOR ORIENTED
B. POLICE POWER
A. QUANTITATIVE
- PASEI V. DRILON
- Labor constitutes the great majority of the
- Pertains to state authority to enact
population
legislation that may interfere with the
personal liberty or property in order to
B. QUALITATIVE
promote the general welfare.
- Its aim is to promote the welfare of society
- It consists of:
- Labor as the weakest link
o Imposition of restraint upon liberty
LABOR LAW V. SOCIAL LAW and property
o In order to foster the common good
AS TO OBJECT
- It’s an ever expanding scope to meet the
LL – To improve the well-being of labor in exigencies of the times
general - It does not own its origin in the Constitution;
it is INBORN in the very fact of statehood
SL – Aims to promote the welfare of society
and sovereignty
in general
- IMPLIED LIMITATION on the Bill of
AS TO SUBJECT MATTER Rights
LL – deals on subjects of proximate and
direct interest to work
RATIONALE OF LABOR LAWS
 - Article 1700, New Civil Code present his own case and
- Relations between capital and labor are not submit evidence in support
merely contractual. They are so impressed o The Tribunal Must Consider his
with public interest that labor contracts must Evidence
yield to common good  Not only must the party be
given an opportunity to
present his case and to
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION adduce evidence tending to
TO LABOR establish the rights which he
asserts but the tribunal must
- The Constitution introduces new provisions
consider the evidence
which are significant to labor law
presented
o It defines State policies in labor
o Having something to support its
o It guarantees individual and
decision
collective right of workers  While the duty to deliberate
o It contains nationalistic provisions does not impose the
protecting Filipino labor obligation to decide right, it
does imply a necessity which
NEW CONSTITUTIONAL POLICIES cannot be disregarded,
CONCERNING LABOR namely that of having
something to support its
- Article 2, Section 8 decision
- Article 12, Section 12 o Evidence must be Substantial
- Article 13, Section 3  Not only must here be some
- Article 13, Section 14 evidence to support a finding
or conclusion, but the
evidence must be substantial
 The rules of evidence
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF LABOR prevailing the courts of law
shall not be controlling.
- The Constitution is the bedrock of the most  This is to free administrative
fundamental rights in labor. These are boards from the compulsion
classified into: of technical rules so that mere
o Individual Rights – Article 3, admission of matter which
Charter of Individual Liberties would be deemed
o Collective Rights - Section 3, incompetent in judicial
Article 3; enshrined in the Protection proceedings would not
to Labor clause invalidate the administrative
order
 Desirable flexibility in
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF WORKERS
administrative procedure
A. RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS  Mere uncorroborated
- Article 3, Section 1 hearsay or rumor does not
- Ang Tibay v. CIR, which enumerated the constitute substantial
Cardinal Rights of Due Process: evidence
o Right to a Hearing o Decisions must be rendered on the
 Includes the right of the party evidence presented
interested or affected to
  The decision must be
rendered on the evidence
presented at the hearing or at
least contained in the record
and disclosed to the parties
affected
 By confining the
administrative tribunal to the
evidence disclosed to the
parties, can the latter be
protected in their right to
know and meet the case
against them
 The CIR may refer any
industrial or agricultural
dispute or any matter under
its consideration to a local
board of inquiry, a provincial
fiscal, a justice of the peace
or any public official in any
part of the Philippines for
investigation, report,
recommendation, and may
delegate powers as the Court
may deem necessary
o Must act on its own independent
consideration of law and facts of
the controversy
 The CIR of any of its judges,
therefore must act on its or
his own independent
consideration of the law and
facts of the controversy and
not simply accept the views
of a subordinate in arriving at
a decision
o The parties to the proceeding can
know the various issues involved
 The CIR should in all
controversial questions
render its decision in such a
manner that the parties to the
proceeding can know the
various issues involved and
the reasons for the decisions
rendered.
COMPONENTS OF DUE PROCESS
1. Substantive – requires the intrinsic validity
of the laws in interfering with the rights of
the person to his life, liberty or property
2. Procedural - consists in the two basic
rights of notice and hearing and the
guarantee of being heard by an impartial
and competent court
VALID DISMISSAL
In order for a dismissal to be valid, the employer
must comply with both substantive and procedural
due process requirements.
Substantive due process requires that the dismissal
must be pursuant to either a just or an authorized
cause (Articles 297-299, Labor Code)
Procedural due process mandates that the employer
must observe the twin requirements of notice and
hearing before the dismissal can be effected
The Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor
Code, Section 2 (1), Rule 23, Book 5 provides for
the required standard procedural due process
accorded to employees who stand to be terminated
from work:
1. Must be based on Just Causes found in the
LC
a. Written notice served on the
employee
b. Hearing or conference
c. Written notice of termination
DO 147-15 Series of 2015, promulgated by the
SOLE that governs the application of just and
authorized causes of termination of employment
under the Labor Code.
- Serving of two written notices to the
employee. It shall contain:
o Specific Causes for termination
o Detailed narration of the facts and
circumstances
o Directive; to give the employee to
submit a written explanation within
reasonable period
  Reasonable period: 5 create an impression that a labor
Calendar Days from the
receipt of notice
- After serving the notice, the er should afford
the ee ample opportunity to be heard and to
defend himself
o Ample opportunity pertains to any
meaningful opportunity verbal or
written given to the ee to answer the
charges against him or her and
submit evidence in support of his or
her defense whether in a hearing,
conference, or some other fair
o A Formal Hearing shall only be
mandatory only when requested by
the employee in writing OR
substantial evidentiary disputes
exists or a company rule or practice
requires it
- After determination that the termination of
the ee is justified, the er shall serve the ee
with a written notice of termination
indicating that (1) all circumstances
involving the charge against the ee have
been considered (2) the grounds have been
established to justify the severance of the
employment
- The requirement of hearing is complied with
as long as there was an opportunity to be
heard, and not necessarily that an actual
hearing was conducted
B. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
- Article 3, Section 4
- Peaceful picketing as a phase of
Constitutional right of free utterance
- What is protected is the element of
communication and not the act of patrolling
or marching which may be subject of
reasonable regulation.
- Liwayway Publications v. Permanent
Concrete
o The right is NOT ABSOLUTE
o The right may be regulated at the
instance of third parties or innocent
by standers, if it appears that the
inevitable results of its exercise is to
dispute with which they have no
connection or interest exists between
then and the picketing union or
constitute an invasion of their right
o The picket is merely regulated to
protect the rights of third parties
- The prohibition against injunction does
NOT APPLY when petitioned by a third
party whose property is sought to be levied
against another
- The Courts, in the exercise of its equity
jurisdiction
C. FREEDOM FROM ASSOCIATION
- Section 8, Article 3
- The exercise of religious profession is
superior to contract rights
- The freedom of religion enjoys a preferred
position in the constitutional system
- Religious freedom is a fundamental personal
right and liberty and has perfected a
preferred position in the hierarchy of values.
Contractual rights must yield to freedom of
religion
- In case of conflict, contractual rights must
yield to religious rights
- Victoriano v. Elizalde Rope Workers Union
o RA No. 3350 was intended to serve
the secular purpose of advancing the
constitutional right to the free
exercise of religion by averting that
certain persons be refused to work,
or be dismissed from work, or be
disposed of their right to work and of
being impeded to pursue a modest
means of livelihood by reason of
union security agreement
D. NON-IMPAIRMENT CLAUSE
- Section 10, Article 3
- Sanctity of employment contracts
- The contracts protected by the non-
impairment clause are confined to those
respecting property or property rights,
such as employment contracts
 o Subsequent laws or ordinance
which destroys or diminishes the
value of these contracts or deviates
from their terms IMPAIRS their
obligations
o XPN: Police power; Police power is
superior than non-impairment clause
E. FREE ACCES TO COURS OR QUASI
JUDICIAL BODIES
- Section 11, Article 3
- Employees who are aggrieved by the
personal action of their er can easily file
their complaints before the Arbitration
Branch of the NLRC without the need to pay
docket fees
- Ees can walk-in and fill-up pro forma
complaint and have it raffled at once before
the designated Labor Arbiter
- At present walk-in clients must undergo
Single Entry Approach (SENA)
proceedings where the objective is to settle
labor disputes before mediation and
conciliation level so as to not swamp the
Labor Arbiters with cases.
o If there is no settlement –
Complaints are conferred to the
complaint unit of the Arbitration
Branch
- Legal assistance is provided to ees by the
PAO; other NGOs likewise provide free
legal services to indigent litigants: MABINI;
FLAG; IBP; National Center for Legal Aid
F. RIGHT TO SPEEDY DISPOSITION OF
CASES
- Section 16, Article 3
- Covers all forms of labor dispute
- Grounded on the fact that workers do not
have the resources to sustain a protracted
litigation
- Justice delayed is justice denied
G. RIGHT AGAINST INVOLUNTARY
SERVITUDE
- Par. 2, Section 18, Article 3
- Kaisahan v. Golamco Sawsmills
o The voluntariness of the employee’s
entering into such a contract of
employment – he has a free choice
between entering into it or not – with
such an implied condition negatives
the possibility of involuntary
servitude ensuing
- Yusen Air and Sea Service Philippines, Inc
v. Isagani Villamor
o Claims for damages under Par. 4 of
Article 217 to be cognizable by the
LA must have a reasonable causal
connection with any of the claims
provided in that Article. Only if there
is such connection with the other
claims can a claim for damages be
considered as arising from ee-er
relationship.
COLLECTIVE RIGHTS OF LABOR
A. RIGHT TO SELF-ORGANIZATION
- Existing inequality between workers and
employers
- State as the heart of unionism
- Union serves as he mouthpiece
- Who can join: Rank and file employees
(Labor Notes)
- Who cannot join: HR/Managerial
Positions/Employees occupying position
which are confidential and high technical
(Labor Notes)
B. RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING NEGOTIATION
- Ultimate objective why workers form a
union
- Able to negotiate with the employer on the
same level
o Improvement of working conditions
- XPNS: (Who cannot join)
o High level
employees/managerial/confidential
 o Members of the AFP, PNP, Firemen,
Jail guards
- Forms of Collective bargaining takes in
form of:
o Negotiation – major conditions of
employment
o Grievance Meetings
o Arbitration
- Applicability to Government Employees
o Government employees in the civil
service but subject to restrictions
 Terms and conditions may be
negotiated except those
which are already fixed by
law
 Salary of government
employees are governed by
the SSL.
o Salaries of government employees
 Fixed by salary
standardization
 Can be changed through
lobbying
o Government corporations with
original charters
 Enjoy Fiscal autonomy
 Increase salary through
Board Resolutions
- Alliance of Government Workers v.
Minister of Labor and Employment
o Difference between workers in the
private sector and the Government
o Government employees
 Terms and conditions of
employment are subject to
law.
o Relations between private employers
and employees
 Voluntary basis
 Terms and conditions of
employment are settled
through collective
bargaining
- Collective Bargaining Agreement v.
Collective Bargaining Negotiation
o Often used interchangeably
o CBA – where labor
standards/benefits are included,
usually applies to workers in the
private sector; laws between parties
o CBN – negotiate only; applies to
government employees
C. RIGHT TO PEACEFUL CONCERTED
ACTIVITIES
- The right to organization does not involve
the right to strike
- Public employees are PROHIBITED from
striking
- Employees from government corporations
formed under the Corporation Code can
engage in strike (AGW v. Minister of
Labor)
- Strike must have Employee-Employer
Relationship (Labor Notes)
- A strike must have a ground (Labor Notes)
- A strike must have a procedure – notice of
strike (Labor Notes)
- If violence ensued, the strike is considered
illegal (Labor Notes)
D. RIGHT TO SECURITY OF TENURE
- Article 294, Labor Code
- Just Causes of Termination
o Article 297, Labor Code
- Authorized Causes of Termination
o Articles 297-298, Labor Code
- Classification of Employees
o Regular – performs activities that
are usually necessary or desirable in
the usual business or trade of the
employer
o Project – those employment who are
fixed for a specific purpose
o Seasonal – performs services on a
seasonal nature
o Casual – those who are not regular,
seasonal or project employees
o Fixed-term – Added by
jurisprudence (Leyte Geothermal
Power Progressive Employees
 Union-ALU-TUCP V. PNOV-
Energy Development Corporation)
- Probationary Employee
o Undergo trial before regularization
(Labor Notes)
o Employer ensures the fitness of the
employee for the job (Labor Notes)
o Enjoys security of tenure
o May be terminated through: (JAF)
 Just cause
 Authorized cause
 Failure to qualify as a regular
employee in accordance with
the reasonable standards
made known by the employer
to the employee at the time of
the engagement
o Failure of the employer to inform the
employee of the reasonable standards
(regularization standards)
 employee is deemed a
regular employee
 Duties of the employer (CE)
 The employer must
Communicate the
regularization
standard to the
probationary
employee
 The employer must make
such communication at the
time of the probationary
employees Employment
o XPN:
 When the job is Self-
descriptive in nature
 Maids
 Cooks
 Drivers
 Messengers
- Contractual or Fixed-Term Employees
o Only allowed by the Labor Code if
the term was voluntarily and
knowingly entered into by the
parties who must dealt with each
other on equal terms not one
exercising moral dominance over the
other
o Criteria for fixed contracts (PNOC v.
NLRC):
a. The fixed period of employment was
knowingly voluntarily agreed upon by
the parties without duress or improper
pressure being brought to bear upon the
employee and absent any other
circumstances vitiating his consent
b. It satisfactorily appears that the
employer and employee dealt with each
other on more or less equal terms with
no moral dominance whatever being
exercised by the former on the latter
o It cannot be independent, because an
employer-employee relationship
exists (Fuji Network Television v.
Espiritu)
- Project Employees
o Principal Test: In determining
whether an employee is a project
employee and not a regular worker is
whether he was assigned to carry out
a specific project or undertaking the
duration and scope of which were
specified at the time he was engaged
to the project
 Therefore, length of service
is NOT THE
CONTROLLING
FACTOR of the employment
tenure of a project employee
o The end or completion of a project
effectively terminates the
employment of the project
employees.
o If the employees are extended long
after the supposed project was
completed, the employees are
removed from the scope of project
employees and shall be considered as
regulars (Villa v. NLRC)
o Proof of Termination: Upon the
completion of the project, the
 employer must present proof of
termination of the services of the
project employees at the nearest
public employment employees
o Regular Employee v. Project
Employee
 RE – legally entitled to
remain in the service of their
employer until that service is
terminated by one or another
of the recognized modes of
terminated of service under
the Labor Code
 PE – coterminous with the
project any may be
terminated upon the
completion of the project
o Kinds of Projects
 First, a project could refer to
a particular job or
undertaking that is within the
regular or usual business of
the employer company, but
which is distinct and separate
and identifiable as such from
other undertakings of the
company
 Second, a project may refer
to a particular job or
undertaking that is not
within the regular business
of the corporation
E. RIGHT TO HUMAN CONDITIONS OF
WORK
- Concerns about the health, safety and
welfare of the workers
- Book 4 on Health Safety and Social
Welfare Benefits
o Provide for medical and dental
services,
o Occupational health and safety
o Compensation program for
employees and their dependents in
the event of work connected
disability benefits
- Title 3 of Book3
o Regulates the working conditions of
special group of employees:
working women, minors,
househelpers and houseworkers
- Empowerment of SOLE
o Provided by the Labor Code. The
SOLE is authorized to order the
stoppage of work or suspension of
operations of an establishment when
non compliance with the law
imposes a grave or imminent danger
to the health and safety workers in
the workplace
F. RIGHT TO LIVING WAGE
- It pertains not only to the worker, but also
his family, as well and the intent is to secure
the health, decency and well being and
improved quality of life for his family
imbued as it is with social justice
implications
- Minimum Wage v. Living Wage
o MW – Pertains to the floor wage,
below which renumeration cannot
fall
 A Quantitative Concept
equated with subsistence
wage
 The least wage on which an
ordinary individual can be
self-sustaining and obtain
ordinary requirements in life
o LW – takes into consideration not
only the workers himself, but also his
family.
BIRTH OF THE LABOR CODE
- Under the helmship of Minister of Labor and
Employment, Blas Ople
- Objective: To consolidate 60 scattered labor
laws before, during and after the
Commonwealth and to reorient them to the
needs of the economic development and
justice
PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE CODE CIVIL CODE
a. Must be responsive and responsible for - Article 1700
national development - Article 1701
b. Substitute rationality for confrontation - Article 19
during period of national emergency - Article 20
c. Labor justice can be made expeditious - Article 21
without sacrificing due process
REVISED PENAL CODE
d. Manpower development and employment
must be considered as a major dimension of - Article 289
labor policy
e. Global market available to qualified SPECIAL LAWS
Filipinos - SSS
f. Labor laws must have command adequate - GSIS
resources and acquire a capable machinery - Agrarian Reform Law
for effective and sustained implementation - 13th Month Pay
g. Popular representation in national policy - Magna Carta for Public Health Workers
making known as Tripartism
INTERNATIONAL ASPECT
SIGNIFICANCE OF FOREIGN DECISIONS
In the absence of any jurisprudence by our Supreme - INTERNATIONAL LABOR
Court, the interpretation and construction by the ORGANIZATION
United States Supreme Court shall be controlling o Formulates international labor
standards through:
DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF THE LABOR  Conventions
CODE  Recommendations
- Oriented towards national development - INTERNATIONA COMMITMENTS
under the character of a developmental law o Labor is not a commodity
- Aside from regulating the employer- o Freedom of expression and of
employee relationship, it also acts as a tool association are essential to sustained
for national development progress
o That poverty anywhere constitute
BASIC APPROACH IN THE ENACTMENT danger to prosperity everywhere
OF THE LABOR CODE – TRIPARTISM o That war against want requires to be
It pertains to the participation and cooperation carried on with unrelenting vigor
among Government, Labor, Management in the within each nation and by continuous
evolvement and formulation of labor policies and and concerted international effort in
standards. which the representatives of workers
and employers enjoying equal status
The SOLE or his duly authorized representatives with those of government
may call a national, regional, or industrial tripartite - ILO CORE CONVENTIONS
conference of representative of the government, o Freedom of Labor Convention
workers and employers for the adoption of
o Freedom of Association and
voluntary codes designed to promote industrial
Protection of Right to Organize
peace and social justice or to align labor movement
Convention
relations with established priorities in economic and
o Right to Organize and Collective
social development
Bargaining Convention
RELATED LAWS o Equal Renumeration Convention
 o Abolition of Forced Labor
Convention
o Discrimination Convention
o Minimum Wage Convention
o Worst Forms of Labor Convention
- RATIFICATION
o In order for these conventions to be
binding it must be RATIFIED by
the member-states
ARTICLES 3-4
INTEPRETATION AND CONSTRUCTION
- LABORER’S WELFARE
o Liberal interpretation extends not
only in the provisions of the Labor
Code and its Implementing Rules,
but also to the Resolution of Labor
disputes
 Labor as marginalized; Social
Justice
 PLDT v. NLRC
- CONCERN FOR LOWLY WORKER
o The law looks upon the lowly worker
with tenderness, favor and always
with faith and hope in his capacity to
help in shaping the nation’s future
- REASONS FOR AFFORDING
GREATER PROTECTION TO
EMPLOYEES
a. There is greater supply than
demand for labor
b. The need for employment by
labor comes from vital and even
desperate necessity
MANAGEMENT OF RIGHTS
- RIGHTS TO ROI
o Section 3, Article 13
o “Greed is Good”; the existence of
Surplus arms the employer when
confronted by the Union in a
collective bargaining - sharing their
profits to employees
- RIGHT TO PRESCIBE RULES
o Recognition of the employer’s right
to conduct the affairs of his business.
o Employers enjoy a wide latitude of
discretion to REGULATE all the
aspects of employment
o ONLY CRITERION: in the
exercise of its management
prerogative, is that policies, rules
and regulates on work related
activities must be FAIR AND
REASONABLE, and penalties
imposed must be
COMMENSURATE to the offense
involved
- RIGHT TO SELECT EMPLOYEES
o Right of the employer to sell his
labor to such person as he may
choose is the same as the right of an
employer to purchase labor from any
person it chooses
- RIGHT TO TRANSFER OR
DISCHARGE EMPLOYEES
o Traditionally identified as a
management prerogative
o Based on the employer’s inherent
right to control and manage
effectively its enterprise
ARTICLE 6
APPLICABILITY TO GOVERNMENT
CORPORATIONS
- PNOC-EDC; FTI; NHA – are government
agencies organized in furtherance of the
proprietary functions of the government
o These are subject to the provisions of
the Labor Code, since they were
incorporated under the Corporation
Code of the Philippines
NON-APPLICABILITY TO GOVERNMENT
AGENCIES
- Government agencies are subject to the
Civil Service Laws
APPLICABILITY WITHOUT EMPLOYER-
EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
- Article 106