Article 82 of the Labor Code: Who the hours-of-work rules cover

The first paragraph sets the coverage and the exclusions:

The next two paragraphs define two of the excluded groups:

"This Title" means Book Three, Title I of the Labor Code, Articles 82 to 96. It includes the eight-hour workday (Article 83), hours worked (Article 84), meal periods (Article 85), night shift pay (Article 86), overtime (Article 87), rest days (Article 91), rest day and special holiday pay (Article 93), regular holiday pay (Article 94), service incentive leave (Article 95) and service charges (Article 96).

An employee in an excluded group does not get these benefits from Title I. He or she may still get them from a contract, a collective bargaining agreement or company practice. Article 82 speaks only of Title I: whether other parts of the Labor Code apply to a group depends on those other parts.

The implementing rules of the Labor Code (1989 text on the Supreme Court E-Library), Book III, Rule I, Section 2, say a managerial employee is excluded only if all three conditions are met:

1. the primary duty is managing the establishment or a department or subdivision of it;
2. he or she customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more employees there; and
3. he or she has the authority to hire or fire employees of lower rank, or his or her recommendations on hiring, firing, promotion or other changes of status are given particular weight.

The same section sets separate conditions for "officers or members of a managerial staff". Their primary duty is work directly related to management policies, they customarily and regularly use discretion and independent judgment, and they assist a manager or do specialized or technical work or special assignments under general supervision. They must not spend more than 20 percent of their hours in a work week on work unrelated to those duties.

Article 82 looks at two things: the employee regularly works away from the main or branch office, and the actual hours of work in the field cannot be determined with reasonable certainty. The implementing rules use the same test.

In Auto Bus Transport Systems v. Bautista (2005), the Supreme Court said that being paid on commission does not by itself make a worker field personnel. A bus driver who followed a fixed route and schedule, with inspectors and dispatchers checking on him, was not field personnel, and he was entitled to service incentive leave.

Article 82 excludes "domestic helpers" and "persons in the personal service of another". In Atienza v. Saluta (2019), the Supreme Court held that a personal driver of a family was not entitled to holiday pay and service incentive leave under Articles 94 and 95, because Article 82 excludes persons in the personal service of another.

Household workers (kasambahay) are now covered by their own law, Republic Act No. 10361 (Batas Kasambahay), which gives them its own rules on rest, leave and pay. See kasambahay rights.

These are workers paid by output, such as piece-rate, "takay", "pakiao" or task-basis workers. The implementing rules exclude them from the hours rules only if their output rates follow the standards set by the Secretary of Labor and Employment.