Key Vocabulary – Labor Code of the Philippines (2022 DOLE Edition)

A collection of essential vocabulary terms and concise definitions derived from the 2022 Renumbered Labor Code of the Philippines and related DOLE issuances.

Labor Code of the Philippines

The primary law governing employment standards, labor relations, health and safety, and social welfare benefits in the Philippines, first issued as Presidential Decree No. 442 in 1974.

DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment)

The executive department responsible for administering and enforcing the Labor Code and overall labor policy in the Philippines.

Renumbered Labor Code

The Labor Code text updated and renumbered pursuant to DOLE Department Advisory No. 01-15, incorporating all amendments and repeals as of 2022.

National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)

A quasi-judicial body that adjudicates labor and employment disputes, including termination and unfair-labor-practice cases, with appellate jurisdiction over Labor Arbiters’ decisions.

Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC)

The body that formulates policies and oversees the Employees’ Compensation Program and State Insurance Fund for work-related disability or death.

Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR)

DOLE bureau with original and exclusive authority over inter-union and intra-union disputes and other labor-management issues not involving CBA interpretation.

Public Employment Service Office (PESO)

Local government-based office that provides free employment facilitation services nationwide under RA 8759 as amended.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)

Agency (now merged into the Department of Migrant Workers) that regulates private recruitment and oversees protection of overseas Filipino workers.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)

Government agency that administers welfare programs and insurance benefits for member overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Recruitment and Placement

Any act of canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring or procuring workers, including referrals and advertising for employment, locally or abroad.

Illegal Recruitment

Any recruitment activity by non-licensees or non-holders of authority, or commission of prohibited practices under Art. 34, punishable as economic sabotage if syndicated or in large scale.

Apprenticeship

Practical on-the-job training combined with related theoretical instruction for apprenticeable trades requiring more than three months of training.

Learner

A trainee hired for semi-skilled industrial occupations which are non-apprenticeable and can be learned in not more than three months.

Handicapped Worker

An employee whose earning capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency, or injury, and who may be hired at not less than 75 % of the minimum wage.

Hours of Work

The period an employee is required to be on duty; normal hours must not exceed eight per day under Art. 83.

Night-Shift Differential

Premium of at least 10 % of the regular wage for work performed between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Overtime Work

Work performed beyond eight hours a day, compensated with an additional 25 % of the regular wage, or 30 % if on a rest day or holiday.

Service Incentive Leave

Five days of paid leave granted annually to employees who have rendered at least one year of service, unless already enjoying an equivalent benefit.

Minimum Wage

The lowest wage rate that employers may legally pay, set regionally by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards.

Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)

A contract between the employer and the exclusive bargaining agent on wages, hours, and other terms of employment; representation aspect lasts five years.

Grievance Machinery

A system within the CBA for adjusting disputes arising from CBA interpretation or company policies before resort to arbitration.

Voluntary Arbitration

Submission of unresolved grievances to a mutually chosen arbitrator whose award is final and executory after 10 days.

Unfair Labor Practice (ULP)

Acts by employers or labor organizations that violate the right to self-organization, such as interference, discrimination, or bad-faith bargaining.

Strike

A temporary stoppage of work by the concerted action of employees due to a labor dispute, after filing notice and conducting a strike vote.

Lockout

An employer’s temporary refusal to furnish work as a result of a labor dispute, subject to notice and lockout vote requirements.

Managerial Employee

One vested with powers to lay down and execute management policies or hire, transfer, suspend, lay-off, recall, discharge, assign or discipline employees.

Supervisory Employee

An employee who, in the interest of the employer, effectively recommends managerial actions and uses independent judgment, not merely routinary.

Rank-and-File Employee

Employees who are neither managerial nor supervisory and who may form or join bargaining units of their own class.

Labor Arbiter

Quasi-judicial officer of the NLRC with original jurisdiction over termination disputes, ULP cases, money claims, and other labor controversies.

Employment Permit for Non-Resident Aliens

Authorization issued by DOLE allowing foreign nationals to work in the Philippines after determination of non-availability of a competent Filipino.

Regular Employment

Employment of workers performing activities usually necessary or desirable in the employer’s business and who have been engaged beyond the probationary period.

Probationary Employment

Employment for a trial period not exceeding six months to assess an employee’s fitness for regularization under reasonable standards made known at hiring.

Casual Employment

Work not usually necessary or desirable in the employer’s business and lasting less than one year; becomes regular if service reaches at least one year.

Project Employment

Employment fixed for a specific project or undertaking the completion or termination of which is determined at engagement.

Security of Tenure

Right of employees not to be dismissed except for just or authorized causes and with due process.

Termination for Just Cause

Dismissal due to employee’s serious misconduct, willful disobedience, gross neglect, fraud, crime against employer, or analogous causes under Art. 297.

Redundancy

Authorized cause for termination where the employer reduces personnel because the position is excess to actual needs, with separation pay of at least one month per year of service.

Retrenchment

Authorized termination to prevent losses, requiring proof of actual or imminent loss and payment of separation pay of one-half month per year of service.

Retirement Pay

Benefit due to employees aged 60 (and not beyond 65) with at least five years of service in a firm without a retirement plan, equivalent to ½-month pay per year of service.

Labor-Management Council (LMC)

A workplace body of elected worker representatives and management formed to promote information sharing, consultation and participation in decision-making.

Tripartism

State policy of involving government, workers, and employers in labor policymaking; implemented through the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (NTIPC).

National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (NTIPC)

A consultative body headed by the DOLE Secretary with 20 labor and 20 employer representatives that advises on labor, economic and social policies.

Mandatory Conciliation-Mediation

The compulsory first step for most labor disputes under R.A. 10396, conducted by DOLE Single-Entry Approach (SEnA) officers before formal litigation.

Illegal Recruitment in Large Scale

Recruitment by a non-licensee involving three or more victims, considered economic sabotage and punishable with life imprisonment and fines.

Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS)

Set of mandatory workplace safety rules enforced by DOLE; strengthened by R.A. 11058 imposing penalties for violations.

Employees’ Compensation Program

State insurance providing income and medical benefits for work-related injury, sickness, disability or death, funded solely by employer contributions.