QuestionsQuestions (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 442)
The State must afford protection to labor, promote full employment, ensure equal work opportunities regardless of sex/race/creed, regulate employer-worker relations, and assure workers’ rights to self-organization, collective bargaining, security of tenure, and just and humane conditions of work.
All doubts in the implementation and interpretation of the Labor Code, including its implementing rules and regulations, must be resolved in favor of labor.
It takes effect six (6) months after its promulgation.
Implementing rules become effective fifteen (15) days after announcement of their adoption in newspapers of general circulation.
Agricultural workers shall enjoy the rights and benefits granted by the Labor Code to nonagricultural workers, in addition to rights conferred under the Code of Agrarian Reforms (RA 3844), as amended.
A family-size farm is five (5) hectares if not irrigated and three (3) hectares if irrigated.
No title is actually issued until the tenant becomes a full-fledged member of a duly recognized farmers’ cooperative. Title to land acquired under PD 27/land reform is not transferable except by hereditary succession or to the Government in accordance with the Code and other existing laws.
A private fee-charging agency charges a fee for recruitment and placement (from workers or employers or both). A private non-fee-charging agency is engaged in recruitment and placement free of charge (from workers or employers or both).
When employment is promised or offered for a fee—even if multiple persons are involved, the person/entity making the offer or promise is deemed engaged in recruitment.
The Department of Labor must phase out the operation of all private fee-charging employment agencies within four (4) years from the effectivity of the Code.
No one may engage in a private fee-charging employment agency business without first obtaining a license from the Department of Labor. Similarly, one may not operate a private non-fee-charging employment agency without first obtaining an authority from the Department of Labor.
Travel agencies are prohibited from engaging in recruitment and placement of workers for overseas employment whether for profit or not.
A license/authority to recruit or hire workers may only be issued or renewed in favor of Filipino citizens or entities where at least 60% of authorized capital stock is owned and/or controlled by Filipino citizens.
They must post a cash bond of P10,000 and a surety bond of P50,000 for overseas recruitment.
Examples include: charging/accepting amounts greater than the allowable fee schedule; furnishing/publishing false notices/information/documents; inducing a worker to quit to transfer him to another agency unless it liberates from oppressive terms; obstructing labor inspection; failing to file required reports; and withholding travel documents for unauthorized monetary consideration.
They are under the original and exclusive jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
If the offender is a licensee/holder of authority and violates provisions, imprisonment of not less than 2 years nor more than 5 years or fine of not less than P2,000 nor more than P30,000 or both. If not a licensee/holder, imprisonment of not less than 4 years nor more than 8 years or fine of not less than P5,000 nor more than P35,000 or both.
It excludes government employees, managerial employees, field personnel (non-agricultural workers whose actual hours in the field cannot be determined with reasonable certainty), domestic servants, persons in the personal service of another, workers paid by results when output rates are fixed by the Secretary of Labor, and members of the employer’s family dependent on him for support.
Normal hours of work shall not exceed eight (8) hours in a day.