Global Employment Updates 2023: Philippines

Global Employment Updates 2023: Philippines

The Philippines was a colony of Spain for more than 300 years, starting in 1571. Then, it became the first colony of the United States of America for forty years. It was the first Asian country to gain independence from colonizers. The Philippines is the world’s second largest archipelago nation. Situated in Southeast Asia in the Western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,100 islands and covers a total land area of approximately 300,000 square kilometers.

The Filipino Labor Code is the country’s general employment legislation, which regulates the relationship between employees and their employer as well as all other employment-related matters. The law applies to all Filipino enterprises, joint ventures and all employment relationships between Filipino nationals and foreign enterprises.

What to Know:

Implementation of the New Minimum Wage Rate.

There is no standard minimum wage that encompasses the entire country. The regional minimum wages are established via wage orders and are based on minimum standards of living necessary for the employees within a given region. Every area in the Philippines has a different daily minimum wage. 14 regional wage boards have already issued their respective wage orders granting pay hikes ranging between P30 and P110.

Philippine Holidays, Special Working and Non-Working Days under Proclamation No. 1236

On 29 October 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation No. 1236, where the President declared the Regular Holidays and Special Working and Non-Working Days for the Year 2022. The President, meanwhile, is slated to issue separate proclamations for two other observances, Eid-ul-Fitr (which just took place) and Eid-ul-Adha.

The new category, defined as Special Working Day, has been added in this year declaring certain days as working days, compared to the previous years when these were held to be Special Non-Working Days.

Special Working Days

Some of the common special working days are as follows:

• 2 November 2022 (Wednesday) – All Soul’s Day
• 24 December 2022 (Saturday) – Christmas Eve
• 31 December 2022 (Saturday) – New Year’s Eve or Last day of the year

These days will remain as “Special Working Days” in 2022 under the President Proclamation No. 1236. This move is to help “recover from the adverse economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic” by encouraging economic productivity.

Regular Holidays

Employees are entitled to 10 holidays in the Philippines.

Special Non-Working Days

In addition, the government each year announces several special holidays, which may change from year to year.

No premium pay is required if the employee works on special working days. An Employee is entitled only to his basic wage. The rule remains same for regular holidays and special non-working days. For special non-working days, the principle of “no work, no pay” shall also apply which means, the employee is not entitled to receive salary for that special non-working holiday. However, if an employee comes to work on a special non-working day, there must be a premium of 30% added to his daily rate. For regular holidays, employees are paid based on their daily wage for such day even if they do not work. However, if they work on a regular holiday, the employees are entitled to double their daily rate.