Probationary vs Regular Employee: Rights Compared

Fewer, but not none. The Labor Code rule on probation is Article 296 (Article 281 before the 2015 renumbering). The Supreme Court quoted it in full in C.P. Reyes Hospital v. Barbosa (2024). It gives the employer one extra ground that does not exist for regular employees: the employee's failure to qualify under reasonable standards made known at the time of engagement. In Abbott Laboratories v. Alcaraz (2013), the Court called this an additional ground, on top of the just and authorized causes.

Everything else that protects workers still applies. A probationary employee dismissed for a just cause must get the same due process as a regular employee. And if the dismissal is illegal, backwages are now computed the same way.

A regular employee is protected by Article 294 [279], on security of tenure. The employer "shall not terminate the services of an employee except for a just cause or when authorized by this Title." Just causes are faults of the employee, such as serious misconduct; authorized causes are business reasons, such as redundancy or closure. See Just cause vs authorized cause and Valid reasons to fire an employee.

Because failing them is the only extra ground for ending probation, the employer must have made them known when the employee was hired. The implementing rule quoted in Abbott Laboratories v. Alcaraz (2013) adds a strong consequence: "Where no standards are made known to the employee at that time, he shall be deemed a regular employee."

In Abbott, the Court said the employer meets this duty when it makes reasonable efforts to tell the employee what he or she is expected to do or accomplish during probation. It named one exception: jobs that are self-descriptive, such as maids, cooks, drivers or messengers.

Automatically, when he or she is allowed to keep working after the probationary period. Article 296 [281] says such an employee "shall be considered a regular employee." In C.P. Reyes, the Court explained that outside schools, the end of probation without a valid termination makes the employment regular ipso facto, meaning by the very fact itself. The Court noted that teaching staff of private schools and colleges are different: their probation is also governed by the regulations for private schools, so finishing the probation period does not by itself make them permanent.

Before this case, an earlier ruling, Robinsons Galleria v. Ranchez, had stopped the backwages of an illegally dismissed probationary employee at the end of the probation period. The Supreme Court, sitting en banc, set that rule aside. It held that illegally dismissed probationary employees, "like regular employees, are entitled to backwages up to their actual reinstatement." If reinstatement is not feasible, backwages run up to the finality of the decision.

The same case confirmed that the "two-notice rule" applies to probationary employees dismissed for a just cause. For the remedies in detail, see Illegally dismissed: what can you get? and Fired without notice?

These are made-up examples to show how the rules work. They are not advice for any real case.

Rhea. Rhea starts as a probationary staff nurse on June 1. Her six months pass, nobody says anything, and she keeps working in December. She is now a regular employee by law.

Paolo. Paolo is hired as an accounting assistant. His contract only says "probationary for 6 months" and no one tells him how he will be rated. Under the rule quoted in Abbott, he would be deemed regular, because no standards were made known at hiring.

Ivy. Ivy is on probation at a store and is dismissed in her third month on vague grounds, with no notice to explain. If the labor tribunal finds the dismissal illegal, her backwages run up to reinstatement, or up to the finality of the decision, not just to the end of month six.

Ana. Ana is placed by an agency in a client's warehouse on repeated five-month contracts. That raises a different question, about contracting and fixed terms. See Endo and labor-only contracting.

For more on probation alone, see Can a probationary employee be terminated?

Talk to a lawyer if you were dismissed during probation without a clear reason, if you were never told the standards, or if you kept working past six months and were then let go. If you cannot afford a lawyer, see Free legal help in the Philippines for the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) and other options.