Legal basis and purpose
- The circular is issued to rationalize and standardize rates of night-shift differential pay granted to government employees under Presidential Decree No. 985 and Republic Act No. 6758, as amended.
- The circular establishes a unified system for granting the night-shift differential pay and fixes the conditions and computation rules for eligibility and payment.
Coverage: who gets night-shift pay
- All government employees are covered if their regular schedule of work falls partly or wholly between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM of the following day.
- Coverage applies irrespective of employment status, including permanent, casual, temporary and contractual employees.
- The relevant work-time window for coverage is tied to hours that fall between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM of the following day.
Exemptions: who is not covered
- Public health workers are excluded because they are already covered by RA 7305.
- Government employees whose schedule of office hours falls between 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM are excluded; services beyond the regular eight-hour schedule are paid as overtime pay under existing laws, rules, and regulations.
- Government employees required or on call 24 hours a day (including uniformed personnel of the AFP, PNP, BJMP, and BFP) are excluded.
Key definitions and computation
- Night-shift Differential Pay is defined as a compensation premium granted to government personnel whose regular working hours fall wholly or partly within 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM of the following day.
- Hourly Basic Rate is defined as:
- dividing the employee’s monthly rate by 22 working days; then
- dividing the quotient by 8 hours.
Core rules on eligibility and amount
- Night-shift differential pay may be granted at a rate not exceeding 20% of the employee’s hourly basic rate.
- When the schedule of working hours falls partly within 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM, payment is granted only for the hours within 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM of the following day.
- If an employee on a regular night shift renders services in excess of the regular 8-hour night shift, the excess hours are compensated under the rules on overtime compensation.
- To qualify, the employee’s official working hours must be prescribed by the head of office based on:
- the nature of the services of the office concerned, and
- the necessity for an official shift outside the ordinary working hours prescribed by the Civil Service Commission.
- The prescribed official working hours must be observed for at least 10 working days to qualify for night-shift differential pay.
Payment authority and approvals
- The Head of Office may authorize payment of night-shift differential pay without the need of prior approval from the Department of Budget and Management.
Funding and charge to appropriations
- Implementation costs are charged against existing appropriations of the concerned departments/agencies.
- For government-owned or controlled corporations, the charge is made against their respective corporate funds.
- For local government units, the charge is made against their respective local funds.
- If an agency has no appropriation for the purpose, it may use savings from released allotments for personal services.
Handling of cases not covered
- Cases not covered by the circular’s provisions must be submitted to the DBM for appropriate action and/or resolution.
Repeal, modification, and supremacy clauses
- Inconsistent circulars, guidelines, rules, regulations, or provisions are modified accordingly.
- All previous DBM approvals and authorities that are inconsistent with the circular are deemed superseded and modified accordingly.