Labor protection or benefits to society or segments

It is the exertion by human beings of physical or mental thereof in furtherance of social justice.
efforts, or both, towards the production of goods and o It includes statutes intended to enhance the
services. welfare of the people even where there is no Er-
Ee relationship.
The State affirms labor as a primary social economic force. o E.g. GSIS Law, SSS Law, PhilHealth benefits,
It shall protect the rights of workers and promote their Agrarian Laws
welfare (1987 Constitution, Art. II, Sec. 18).
Labor Legislation Social Legislation
o Directly affects o Governs effects of
Labor Law
employment employment
The law that governs the rights and duties of the employer
o E.g. Wages o E.g. Compensation for
(Er) and employees (Ee) with respect to:
injuries
o Refers to labor statutes o Refers to Social
1. The terms and conditions of employment, and
like Labor Relations Law Security Laws
2. Labor disputes arising from collective bargaining or
and Labor Standards
other concerted activity respecting such terms and
Law
conditions.
o Focuses on the rights of o Focuses on the
the worker in the particular part of the
PART I: PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS
workplace society or segment
1. Labor Legislation thereof
o Statutes, regulations, and jurisprudence governing NOTE: Labor laws are social legislation, but not all social
the relations between capital and labor, by legislations are labor laws. In relation to each other, social
providing for certain employment standard and a legislation as a concept is broader, labor laws narrower.
legal framework for negotiating, adjusting, and PART II: EE-ER RELATIONSHIP
administering those standards and other incidents
of employment. 1. Classification of Employment

Classification of Labor Laws As to tenure

2. Labor Standard o Permanent

o Minimum requirements prescribed by existing
laws, rules and regulations as to the terms and
conditions of employment relating to wages, hour
of work, cost-of-living, allowance and other
monetary and welfare benefits, including
occupational, safety and health standards.
o E.g. 13th Month Pay
o Temporary/Probationary
As to Labor Code Book VI, Art. 280
 Regular and Casual Employment
 As to Nature: Ee performs activities that are
necessary and desirable to the overall business scheme
of Er. (IRR, Book VI, Rule I, Sec. 5a)

 As to Length of Service: Any Ee who has rendered

3. Labor Relation
o Defines and regulates the status, rights and duties,
and the institutional mechanisms that govern the
individual and collective interactions of Ers, Ees,
and representatives
o E.g. Collective Bargaining Negotiations
o Sec. 3 – Employees cannot be compelled comply
in sudden changes in business model
4. Social or Welfare Legislation
o All laws passed by the State to promote public
welfare. Laws that provide particular kinds of
at least one (1) year of service, whether such service is
continuous or broken, shall be considered a regular Ee
with respect to the activity in which he is employed
and his employment shall continue while such activity
exists. (IRR, Book VI, Rule I, Sec. 5b)
NOTE: Regularization is not a management prerogative;
rather, it is the nature of employment that determines it.
It is a mandate of the law.
What determines regularity or casualness is not the
employment contract, written or otherwise, but the
nature of the job (Policy Instruction No. 2).

The practice of entering into employment contracts which
would prevent the workers from becoming regular should
be struck down as contrary to public policy and morals
Contract of perpetual employment
It deprives management of its prerogative to decide
whom to hire, fire, and promote and renders inutile the
basic precepts of labor relations
It is contrary to public policy and good customs, as it
unjustly forbids the employer from terminating the
services of an employee despite the existence of a just or
valid cause.
 Project Employment
 “Project” - reference to a particular job or
undertaking that may or may not be within the regular
or usual business of the Er. In either case, the project
must be distinct, separate and identifiable from the
main business of the Er, and its duration must be
determined or determinable.
 Coterminous with the project
 “the employment has been fixed for a specific
project or undertaking whose completion or
termination has been determined at the engagement
of the employee”
 E.g. Construction Workers, Caregivers
NOTE: Where the employment of a project Ee is extended
long after the supposed project has been finished, the Ees
are removed from the scope of project Ees and considered
as regular Ees.
Repeated hiring on a project-to-project basis is considered
necessary and desirable to the business of the Er. The Ee is
deemed regular.
Requisites in determining whether an Ee is a project Ee
1. Designation as “Project Employees”
2. Assigned to carry out a specific project or undertaking
3. The duration and scope of which were specified at the
time the Ee was engaged for that project.
4. The Ee must have been dismissed every after
completion of his project or phase;
5. Report to the DOLE of Ee’s dismissal on account of
completion of contract.
Employees in the construction industry
1. Project Employees - those employed in connection with
a particular construction project or phase;
2. Non-project Employees - those employed by a
construction company without reference to a particular
project.
Work Pool – Non-project employees for an indefinite
period.
“Day certain” rule
It states that a project employment that ends on a certain
date does not end on an exact date but upon the
completion of the project.
 Seasonal Employment
 Seasonal: Work is seasonal in nature and such
employment is for the duration of season
 E.g. Christmas, SM gift wrapper
 Regular Seasonal: Temporarily laid-off, but re-
employed during the season.
 Control Test is nature of the job, not the length they
have worked.
 E.g. Farmers
 Fixed-Term Employment
 Requisites
i. Fixed period of employment was knowingly and
voluntarily agreed upon by the employer and
employee without any force, duress, or improper
pressure being brought to bear upon the employee and
absent any other circumstances vitiating his consent;
ii. It satisfactorily appears that the employer and the
employee dealt with each other on more or less equal
terms with no moral dominance exercised by the
former or the latter.
Brent Doctrine
Article 295 of the Labor Code does not prohibit an
employment contract with a fixed period, provided it is
entered into by the parties without any force, duress of
improper pressure being brought to bear upon either
party, particularly the employee and absent any other
circumstances vitiating consent.
Such employment for a defined period is allowed even
where the duties of the employee consist of activities
usually necessary or desirable in the usual business of the
employer.
Overseas Seafarers are contractual
The employment of overseas seafarers is governed by the
POEA Standard Employment Contract for Filipino Seamen.
Their employment is governed by the contracts they sign
every time they are rehired and their employment is
terminated when the contract expires.
It is an accepted maritime industry practice that
employment of seafarers is for a fixed period only.
Domestic Seafarers are not contractual
Seamen employed in domestic shipping are entitled to
security of tenure, can become permanent employees and
can be terminated only for just or authorized causes.
Domestic seafarers are covered by the Labor Code,
including its Book VI.
 Probationary Employment
 Trial period where the employee determines his
fitness to qualify for regular employment, based on
reasonable standards made known to the Ee at the
time of engagement.
 The Er shall make known to the Ee the standard
under which he will qualify as a regular Ee at the time
of his employment
 Where no standards are made known, Ee shall be
deemed a regular (Sec. 6(d), IRB VI, Rule VII-A LC)
 Shall not exceed 6 months from first day of work
Characteristics of probationary employment
1. It is an employment for a trial period;
2. Temporary employment status prior to regular
employment;
3. It arises through a contract with the following elements:
a. The Ee must learn and work at a particular type of
work
b. Such work calls for certain qualifications
c. The probation is fixed
d. The Er reserves the power to terminate during or at
the end of the trial period
e. And if the Ee has learned the job to the satisfaction
of the Er, he becomes a regular Ee.
Rules on probationary employment
1. Er shall make known to the Ee at the time he is hired,
the standards by which he will qualify as a regular Ee;
2. Probationary employment must have been expressly
agreed upon; without such explicit agreement, the
employment is considered regular;
3. An Ee allowed to continue work after the probationary
period shall be considered a regular Ee;
4. During the probationary period, the Ee enjoys security
of tenure; his services can only be terminated for just or
authorized causes.
Period of probationary employment
GR: It shall not exceed 6 months.
XPNs:
1. Covered by an Apprenticeship or Learnership
agreement stipulating a different period;
2. Voluntary agreement of parties (especially when the
nature of work requires a longer period)
NOTE: By voluntarily agreeing to such an extension, the Ee
waived any benefit attaching to the completion of the
period if he still failed to make the grade during the period
of extension.
3. The Er gives the Ee a second chance to pass the
standards set.
4. When the same is required by the nature of the work,
e.g. the probationary period set for professors, instructors
and teachers is 3 consecutive years of satisfactory service
pursuant to DOLE Manual of Regulations for Private
Schools;
5. When the same is established by company policy.
Period of probation shall be reckoned from the date
the Ee actually started working [IRR, Book VI, Rule I,
Sec.6(b)]. Probationary Ees may be dismissed for cause
before end of the probationary period.
Purpose of the probation period
The purpose of the probation period is to afford the Er an
opportunity to observe the fitness of a probationary Ee at
work.
Instances when extension is allowed
1. Nature of the job requires extensive training; or
2. If it is a company policy that the period of probationary
employment should be an extended period.
NOTE: The extension of period should always be
reasonable; Such that, the nature of the work so requires
and that it is the amount of time required for an ordinary
worker to learn the job.
Essence of the prohibition on double or successive
probation
The evil sought to be prevented is to discourage scheming
Ers from using the system of double or successive
probation to circumvent the mandate of the law on
regularization and make it easier for them to dismiss their
Ees.
 Causal Employment
 It is an employment where the Ee is engaged in an
activity which is not usually necessary or desirable in
the usual business or trade of the Er, provided: such
employment is neither Project nor Seasonal (LC, Art.
281). He performs only an incidental job in relation to
the principal activity of the Er.
 NOTE: But despite the distinction between regular and
casual employment, every Ee shall be entitled to the same
rights and privileges, and shall be subject to the same
duties as may be granted by law to regular Ees during the
period of their actual employment.
 An Ee is engaged to perform a job, work or service
which is merely incidental to the business of the Er,
and such job, work or service is for a definite period
made known to the Ee at the time of engagement
[IRR, Book Vi, Rule I, Sec. 5 (b)].
Casual Ee becoming a regular Ee
If he has rendered at least 1 year of service, whether such
service is continuous or broken, he is considered as
regular Ee with respect to the activity in which he is
employed, and his employment shall continue while such
activity exists.
A casual Ee is only casual for 1 year, and it is the passage
of time that gives him a regular status.
The purpose is to give meaning to the constitutional
guarantee of security of tenure and right to self-
organization.
2. Control Test
The control test assumes primacy in the overall
consideration. There is an Er-Ee relationship when the
person for whom the services are performed reserves the
right to control not only the end achieved but also the
manner and means used to achieve that end.
 Determines whether a worker is an employee and
if so, then he is subject to control over when,
where, and how (means and methods) to perform
thee work.
 The control test calls merely for the existence of
the right to control the manner of doing the work,
not the actual exercise of the right.
Kinds of Control Exercised by Employer
Not every form of control establishes employer-employee
relationship. A demarcation line should be drawn
between:
1. That merely serve as guidelines which only
promote the result (No relationship established)
2. Rules that fix the methodology and bind or restrict
the party hired to the use of such means or
methods.
Guidelines indicative of labor law "control" should not
merely relate to the mutually desirable result intended by
the contractual relationship; they must have the nature of
dictating the means or methods to be employed in
attaining the result, or of fixing the methodology and of
binding or restricting the party hired to the use of these
means. Absence of such control, there is no employer-
employee relationship.
Employment Relationship
Employment relationship is determined by law and not by
contract.
NOTE: Taxi or jeepney drivers under the “boundary”
system are Ee’s of the taxi or jeepney owners/operators;
also the passenger bus drivers and conductors.
Employer-Employee Relation as a Question of Law
(Stipulation that No Er-Ee Relationship Exists)
It is axiomatic that the existence of an Er-Ee relationship
cannot be negated by expressly repudiating it in the
management contract and providing therein that the Ee is
an independent contractor when the terms of the
agreement clearly show otherwise. For the employment
status of a person is defined and prescribed by law and
not by what the parties say it should be. In determining
the status of the management contract, the Four-Fold
Test on employment has to be applied.
Employer-Employee Relation As A Question Of Fact
The existence of an employer-employee relationship
depends upon the facts of each case.
3. Employment Contract
 Premised on agreement
PART III: SOURCES OF LABOR LAWS
1. Constitutional
2. Law
3. Jurisprudence
4. Rules and Regulations
5. International Treaties
PART IV: LABOR CODE PROVISIONS ON LABOR
STANDARDS LAW
1. Conditions of Employment
2. Hours of Work
PART V: LABOR CODE PROVISIONS ON LABOR STANDARDS
LAW
1. Wages
PART VI: LABOR CODE PROVISIONS ON LABOR
STANDARDS LAW

1. Wage-Related Benefits

PART VII: LABOR CODE PROVISIONS ON LABOR

STANDARDS LAW

1. Working Conditions for Special Workers

2. Anti-Age Discrimination Law

PART VIII: WELFARE LAWS

1. SSS
2. GSIS
3. PhilHealth
4. Kasambahay Law

PART IX: ENFORCEMENT OF LABOR STANDARD LAWS

1. D.O. 57-04