GENERAL PROVISIONS ARTS.

1-2

5) There is a global labor market available to qualified Filipinos,

especially those who are unemployed or whose employment is
tantamount to unemployment because of their very little earnings.
6) Labor laws must command adequate resources and acquire a capable
machinery for effective and sustained implementation; otherwise,
they merely breed resentment not only of the workers but also of the
employers. When labor laws cannot be enforced, both the employers
and the workers are penalized, and only a corrupt few — those who
are in charge of implementation — may get the reward they do not
deserve.
7) There should be popular participation in national policy-making
through what is now called tripartism.1
9. SOME LABOR LAWS BEFORE THE PASSAGE OF THE CODE
There were some sixty pieces of labor laws in effect when the Labor Code
project began. Although most of them are already abrogated by the Code, some
are still relevant because the rationale or policy behind them has been carried
over to the Code, and many court rulings about them remain controlling to this
day.
The oldest was Act No. 1874, or the Employer’s Liability Act enacted
on June 19, 1908 by the Philippine Legislature. There were also Act No. 2549
(enacted on January 21, 1916) which prohibited payment of wages in non-cash
form; Act No. 2071 prohibiting slavery or involuntary servitude; R.A. No. 1054,
requiring emergency medical treatment for employees; and C.A. No. 444 or the
Eight-Hour Labor Law.
Commonwealth Act No. 103 created the Court of Industrial Relations
(CIR), precursor of the National Labor Relations Commission under P.D. No.
21 (passed in the early years of the Martial Law regime) and the present NLRC.
Its task, much like the present, was to investigate, decide and settle all disputes
between employers and employees.
The Industrial Peace Act (R.A. No. 875), passed in 1953, was the law
governing labor-management relations. Hailed as the Magna Carta of Labor, it
was modelled after the US Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, also known
as the Taft-Hartley Act which, in turn, amended the National Labor Relations Act
or the Wagner Act. Most of the basic principles of the National Labor Relations
Act of the United States have been carried over to the Industrial Peace Act and
now, indirectly, to the Labor Code.

1
cf. 1974 Official edition of the Labor Code; Blas F. Ople, Frontiers of Social and Labor
Policy; Personnel Management Association of the Philippines, Proceedings of the Special
Conference on the Labor Code of the Philippines, June 1974.

17