Article 84 of the Labor Code: Hours worked
Status: In force
What does Article 84 say?
Hours worked shall include (a) all time during which an employee is required to be on duty or to be at a prescribed workplace; and (b) all time during which an employee is suffered or permitted to work.
Rest periods of short duration during working hours shall be counted as hours worked.
Read the Labor Code on the DOLE website (it uses the article numbers before 2015)
What does it mean in plain language?
Article 84 of the Labor Code says what time counts as paid work. It covers all the time an employee is required to be on duty or at a set workplace, and all the time the employee is "suffered or permitted to work". Short rest breaks during working hours also count.
The article keeps the same number and the same words it had in the 1974 Labor Code, as the DOLE renumbered edition shows.
How does it work in real life?
Nora: on call in the staff room
Nora is a clinic aide. During her shift she must stay in the staff room in case a patient arrives, and she cannot leave. Under Section 5 of the implementing rules, she is working while on call, even when no patient comes.
Arnel: on call at home
Arnel, a technician, is free on weekends but carries the company phone in case of a breakdown. He may go wherever he wants and use his time as he likes. Under Section 5, he is not required to stay at or near the workplace and can use the time for himself, so the time on call is not work in itself. The time he spends fixing a breakdown is work.
Bea: the Saturday seminar
Bea's employer holds a Saturday seminar on a new sales system that all sales staff must attend. Attendance is not voluntary and it is about her work, so the seminar is not excluded under Section 6. The hours count as hours worked.
What does this mean in practice?
- Hours worked are the base for the eight-hour workday in Article 83, overtime in Article 87 and night shift pay in Article 86. For amounts, see the overtime pay calculator.
- Article 84 is in Book Three, Title I, so it does not cover the groups excluded by Article 82, such as managerial employees and field personnel.
- The implementing rules quoted here are the 1989 text on the Supreme Court E-Library. Whether later DOLE rules changed them is not covered here.
- Time records, logbooks and messages from a supervisor asking for work after hours can show that work was "suffered or permitted".
- Unpaid hours are a money claim, filed within three years. See how long you have to file a labor money claim and Free legal help in the Philippines.
- For an overview of the rules on pay and working time, see wages, hours and pay under the Labor Code.
What does Article 84 say?
Hours worked shall include (a) all time during which an employee is required to be on duty or to be at a prescribed workplace; and (b) all time during which an employee is suffered or permitted to work.
Rest periods of short duration during working hours shall be counted as hours worked.
"Suffered or permitted to work" means work the employer allows to happen, even if nobody ordered it. If the employer knows the employee is working and lets it go on, that time counts.
What do the implementing rules add?
The implementing rules of the Labor Code (1989 text on the Supreme Court E-Library), Book III, Rule I, explain the article in four sections.
Section 4, principles. All hours the employee is required to give the employer are hours worked, whether or not they are spent in productive work. A rest period does not count only when the employee stops working, may rest completely and may leave the workplace. Work done after normal hours counts if it was necessary or benefited the employer, or if the employee could not leave because there was no replacement, as long as the employer or immediate supervisor knew of it. Time lost to interruptions beyond the employee's control counts if the employee must stay because work may resume any moment, or if the break is too short to be used for the employee's own purposes.
Section 5, waiting and on-call time. Waiting counts as working time if it is an integral part of the work or if the employer requires or engages the employee to wait. An employee who must remain on call at the employer's premises, or so close that he cannot use the time effectively for his own purpose, is working while on call. An employee who is not required to leave word at home or with company officials where he may be reached is not working while on call.
Section 6, lectures, meetings and trainings. Attendance is not working time only if all three conditions are met: it is outside regular working hours, it is in fact voluntary, and the employee does no productive work during it.
Section 7, breaks. Rest periods or coffee breaks running from five to twenty minutes are compensable working time. The rules on meal breaks are in Article 85.
Is a lunch break hours worked?
A regular meal break of at least one hour, when the employee is fully free, is not hours worked. In Sime Darby Pilipinas v. NLRC (1998), a factory replaced a 30-minute paid "on call" lunch break with a one-hour lunch break free from work. The Supreme Court said that since the employees were no longer required to work during the one-hour lunch break, they no longer needed to be paid for it. The full rules are explained in Are meal breaks paid?
Frequently asked questions
What counts as hours worked under the Labor Code?
Article 84 says hours worked include all time when the employee is required to be on duty or at a prescribed workplace, and all time when the employee is suffered or permitted to work. Rest periods of short duration during working hours also count.
Is waiting time paid?
The implementing rules say waiting time counts as working time if waiting is an integral part of the work, or if the employer requires or engages the employee to wait.
Is on-call time paid?
Under the implementing rules, an employee who must stay on call at the employer's premises, or so close that he cannot use the time for his own purpose, is working while on call. An employee who is not required to leave word at his home or with company officials where he may be reached is not working while on call.
Are coffee breaks paid?
Yes. Article 84 says rest periods of short duration during working hours are counted as hours worked. The implementing rules say rest periods or coffee breaks of five to twenty minutes are compensable working time.
Is a company training outside office hours paid?
It is not counted as working time only if all three conditions of the implementing rules are met: attendance is outside regular hours, it is truly voluntary, and the employee does no productive work during it.
General information, not legal advice. For your case, ask a lawyer, the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) or the agency.
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