ART 85 MEAL PERIODS
exertion;
Subject to such regulations as the Secretary of Labor
may prescribe, it shall be the duty of every employer to give
his employees not less than sixty minutes time-off for their
regular employees.
GR: 60 minute meal time is not compensable
EXCEPTIONS: (1) where the lunch period or meal time is
predominantly spent for the employers benefit or
(2) where it is less than 60 mins
Continuous Shifts
-where work is continuous for several shifts, the meal
time breaks should be counted as working time for purposes of
overtime compensation.
National Development Company vs CIR and National Textile
Workers Union; Nov. 30, 1962
Facts
1. At NDC, there were 4 work shifts of eight hours each, with 1
hour meal time per shift, and paid them with 8 hours of work.
2. But since 1953, whenever workers were required to work 2
shifts, they would be credited for only 14 hours, instead of 16
hours. Employers claim that the 2 hours for meal time should
not be included in the computation for compensation.
Ruling
- When work is continuous, the meal time breaks should be
counted as working time for purposes of overtime work.
- The work in petitioner company is continuous as evidenced
by time card which showed that the work was uninterrupted,
employees cannot freely leave their working places nor rest
completely.
- The Rule that the idle time that an employee may spend for
resting is not counted as working time is ONLY applicable when
work is broken and not continuous.
Meal Time of Less Than 60 Minutes
-It may be lessen but not to be shorter than 20 Minutes
- Situations where the meal break may be shortened to less
than 60 minutes, with full pay, are the following:
(a) Where the work is non-manual or does not involve physical
(b) Where the establishment regularly operates not less than
16 hours a day;
(c) When there is actual or impending emergencies or there is
urgent work to b performed on machineries, equipment or
installations to avoid serious loss which the employer would
otherwise suffer; and
(d) Where the work is necessary to prevent serious loss of
perishable goods.
- Shortening meal time to less than 20 minutes is not allowed,
if so it becomes only a rest period and is considered working
time.
Shortened Meal Break upon Employees Request
-employees may request for shorter meal breaks to leave work
early. In such case, shortened meal period is not compensable.
-certain conditions imposed by DOLE:
(1) The employees voluntarily agree in writing to a shortened
meal period, and are willing to waive the overtime pay for
such ;
(2) There will be no diminution whatsoever in the salary and
other fringe benefits of the employees existing before the
effectivity of the shortened meal period;
(3) Work of the employees does not involve stenuous physial
exertion and they are provided with adequate coffee breaks
in the morning and afternoon;
(4) The value of benefits derived by the employees from the
proposed arrangement is equal to commensurate with the
compensation due them for the shortened meal period as well
as the overtime pay for 30 minutes as determined by the
employees concerned;
(5) The overtime pay of the employees will become due and
demandable if ever they are permitted or made to work
beyond 4:30pm; and
(6) The effectivity of the proposed working time arrangement
shall be of temporary duration as determined by Secretary of
Labor and Employment.
CHANGING LUNCH BREAK FROM PAID TO UNPAID
-The right to fix work schedules of the employees rests
pricipally on their employer, when he changed the 30 minute
paid lunch to 1 hour unpaid lunch.
ART. 86. NIGHT SHIFT DIFFERENTIAL
Every employee shall be paid a night shift differential of
not less than 10 % of his regular wage for each hour of work
performed between 10pm and 6 am.
Rationale
- Night work cannot be regarded as desirable, either from the
point of view of the employer or the wage earner.
Night Shift Differential NOT WAIVABLE
Mercury Drug Co. Vs NARDO DAYAO
-The waiver rule is not applicable in the case at bar.
Additional compensation for nighttime work is founded on
public policy, hence the same cannot be waived. (Art 6 NCC).
On this matter, the court believes that the respondent court
acted according to justice and equity and the substation merits
of the case, without regard to technicalities or legal forms and
should be sustained.
Burden of Proof of Payment
- The burden of proving that payment of such benefit has
been made rests upon the party who will suffer if no evidence
at all is presented by either party. Justice Bellosillo in Natl
Semiconductor Distribution vs NLRC
ART 87 OVERTIME WORK
Work may be performed beyon 8 hours a day provided
the employee is paid for the overtime work an additional
compensation equivalent to his regular wage plus at least 25%
thereof. Work performed beyod 8 hours on a holiday or rest
day shall be paid an additional compensation to the rate of
the first eight hours on a holiday or rest day plus at least 30%
thereof.
OVERTIME PAY
-is additional pay for service or work rendered or performed in
excess of eight hours a day by employees or laborers in
employment covered by the 8 hour labor law, and not exempt
from its requirements.
- Computed by multiplying the overtime hourly rate by the
number of hours worked in excess of eight.
Rationale
-It is the additional work, labor, or service employed and the
adverse effects just mentioned of his longer stay in his place of
work that justify and are the real reasons for the extra
compensation that is called overtime pay.
Night Differential Overtime Pay
-payment for work done -payment for the excess of
during the night the regular 8 hour work
Overtime Rate Based on Regular Wage
- Overtime pay is compensation added to the regular wage.
Regular Base Pay
-regular basic pay and necessarily excludes money received in
different concepts such as Christmas bonus and other fringe
benefit.
OVERTIME PAY RATES COMPUTATION (Non Agri P404.00;
Retail/Service Establishment P367.00)
1. For work in excess of 8 hours performed on ordinary
working days: PLUS 25% of the hourly rate (x125%)
2. For work in excess of 8 hours performed on a scheduled rest
day OR a special day :PLUS 30% of the hourly rate on said days
(x 130%).
3. For work in excess of 8 hours performed on a regular
holiday: PLUS 30% of the hourly rate on said days. (x200% x
130%)
4. For work in excess of eight hours performed on a regular
holiday which falls on a scheduled rest day: PLUS 30% of the
hourly rate on said days. (x260 % x 130%)
*** Retail/Service establishment employing less than 10
workers is ot covered by the rule on Holiday Pay.
Premium Pay; When Included or Excluded in Computing
Overtime Pay
GR: The premium pay for work performed on rest days,special
days or regular holidays is included as part of the regular rate
of the employee in the computation of overtime pay for
overtime work rendered.
EXCEPTIONS: (1) Employees and employeer may stipulate in
their collective agreement the payment of overtime work at
rates higher than those provided by law.
CBA May Stipulate Higher Overtime Pay Rate
-it is not for the court to impose upon the parties anything
beyond what they have agreed upon which is not tainted with
illegality.
Conversion of Monthly to Daily Rate; Actual Work Days as
Divisor
PALEA (Philippine Air Lines Employees Associations) VS PAL
70 SCRA 244
FACTS
In the dispute between PAL and its two unions, the PALEA and
the PALSA over the method of computing the basic and hourly
rate of monthly-salaried employees the Industrial Court
declared PAL's formula legal and proper.
The unions moved for reconsideration, attributing error to PAL's
wage formula, particularly in the use of 365 days as divisor for
this would necessarily include off-days which, under the terms
of the collective bargaining agreements entered into between
the parties, were not paid days.
RULING
The Supreme Court held that the divisor in computing an
employee's basic daily rate should be the actual working days in
a year; that the long silence of the PAL employees relative to the
adopted formula of their employer was innocent silence which
cannot place them in estopped and that since the union
members' claim anchored on the written contracts between the
litigants, the ten-year prescriptive period provided by Article
1144 (1) of the New Civil Code should govern.
SYLLABUS
LABOR RELATIONS; COMPENSATION; OFF-DAYS ARE NOT PAID
DAYS. There should hardly be any doubt that off-days are not
paid days. Precisely, off-days are rest days for the worker. He is
not required to work on such days. This finds support not only in
the principle in labor that the basis of remuneration or
compensation is actual service rendered, but in the ever
pervading labor spirit aimed at humanizing the conditions of the
working man. Since during his off-days an employee is not
compelled to work, he cannot, conversely, demand for his
corresponding pay. If, however, a worker works on his off-day,
our welfare laws duly reward him with a premium higher than
what he would receive when he works on his regular working
day.
2. ID.; ID.; ID.; METHOD OF COMPUTING EMPLOYEE'S BASIC DAILY
RATE. The divisor in computing an employee's basic daily rate
should be that actual working days in a year. The number of
off-days are not to be counted precisely because on such
off-days, an employee is not required to work.
3. ID.; ID.; ID.; RULING IN NAWASA VS. NWSA CONSOLIDATED
UNIONS, ET AL., APPLICABLE TO INSTANT CASE. PAL maintains
that the NAWASA doctrine (enunciated in G.R. No. L-18938,
August 31, 1964) should not apply to a public utility like PAL
which, from the nature of its operations, requires a
whole-year-round, uninterrupted work by personnel. What PAL
apparently forgets is that just like it, NAWASA is also a public
utility which likewise requires its workers to work the whole year
round. NAWASA is a government-owned corporation to which
PAL is akin, it being a government-controlled corporations. PAL
inked with the represented unions of the employees collective
bargaining agreements wherein it bound itself to duly
compensate employees working on their off-days. The same
situation obtained in the NAWASA case, hence, the settled
doctrine should not be disturbed.
4. ID.; ID.; ACQUIESCENCE TO METHOD OF COMPUTATION OF
DAILY RATE WILL NOT RESULT IN ESTOPPEL. PAL's formula of
determining daily and hourly rate of pay has been decided and
adopted by it unilaterally without the knowledge and express
consent of the employees. It was only later on that the
employees came to know of the formula's irregularity and its
being violative of the collective bargaining agreements
previously executed by PAL and the unions. PALSA immediately
proposed that PAL use the correct method of competition, which
proposal PAL chose to ignore. Clearly, therefore, the
long-standing silence by the PAL employees is in truth and in fact
innocent silence, which cannot place a party in estoppel. The
rationale for this is not difficult to see. The doctrines of estoppel
had its origin in equity. As such, its applicability depends, to a
large extent, on the circumstance surrounding a particular case.
Where, therefore, the neglect or omission alleged to have
placed a party in estopped is actually fraught with badges of
innocence, estoppel cannot be invoked. In another count, the
unilateral adoption by PAL of an irregular wage formula being an
act against public policy the doctrine of estoppel cannot give
validity to the same.
5. ID.; ID.; CLAIM FOR PAY DIFFERENTIALS; APPLICABLE LAW.
Where the claim involves the strict compliance with the
provisions on wage computations embodied in the collective
bargaining agreements inked between the litigants, the Civil
Code provisions on the prescriptive period in the filing of action
based on written contracts should apply. Where the claim for
differentials is solely based on the Eight-Hour Labor Law, the
three-year prescriptive period fixed therein will apply.
6. ID.; ID.; ID.; CONSTRUCTION IN FAVOR OF LABOR. Where
there is doubt as to what labor legislation to apply to the
grievances of the employees, that legislation which would
enhance the right of the workers should be followed, consonant
with the express pronouncement of the New Civil Code that: "In
case of doubt, all labor legislation and labor contracts should be
construed in favor of the safety and decent living of he laborer."
How Work Day is Counted

A Day - is a 24 hour period which commences from the time

the employee regularly starts to work.