Are Managers and Field Workers Paid Overtime?

Article 82 opens Title I of Book Three, the part of the Labor Code on hours of work, rest periods, holidays and service incentive leave. Its number did not change in the 2015 renumbering. The first paragraph reads:

Overtime pay is in the same title, in Article 87. So an employee excluded by Article 82 is outside the overtime rule of the Labor Code. A contract, company policy or collective agreement may still grant overtime pay.

Article 82 defines managerial employees briefly:

The implementing rules (Book III, Rule I, Section 2, in the 1989 text on the Supreme Court E-Library) set the conditions. A managerial employee is excluded only if he or she meets all of these:

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

The same rules exclude officers or members of a managerial staff if they meet these conditions:

1. Their primary duty is work directly related to management policies of the employer.
2. They customarily and regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment.
3. They regularly and directly assist a proprietor or a managerial employee, or do specialized or technical work under general supervision that requires special training, experience or knowledge, or carry out special assignments and tasks under general supervision.
4. They do not spend more than 20 percent of their hours worked in a work week on activities not directly and closely related to the work above.

Article 82 defines them:

Both parts must be true: the employee regularly works away from the office, and the actual hours in the field cannot be determined with reasonable certainty. If the employer sets fixed hours, requires check-ins, or tracks the work so that the hours are known, the second part may not be met. Courts decide this on the facts of each case.

No. The Labor Code uses different definitions in different places:

• Article 82 decides who is outside the hours-of-work rules, as explained above.
• [Article 96](/law/labor-code/article-96) has its own definition of managerial employees, used only to decide who gets no share of service charges.
• Article 219 [212](m) defines managerial and supervisory employees for Book Five, the part of the Code on labor relations.

A person can fit one definition and not another. See service charges: how they must be shared.

Article 82 also excludes:

• Government employees, whether of the national government, its political subdivisions or government-owned or controlled corporations, as the implementing rules say.
• Family members of the employer who depend on him or her for support.
• Domestic helpers and persons in the personal service of another. Since Republic Act No. 10361, the Batas Kasambahay, domestic workers have their own law. See kasambahay rights.
• Workers paid by results, such as piece-rate workers, as determined by the Secretary of Labor in regulations. The implementing rules exclude them if their output rates follow the standards set in the regulations.

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

Lito is a field sales agent. He visits clients all over the province, sets his own route, and nobody checks his hours outside the office. He fits the definition of field personnel in Article 82, so the overtime rule of the Labor Code does not apply to him.

Grace has the title "store manager," but she works the cash register most of the day, directs no one, and has no say in hiring or firing. She does not meet the conditions for a managerial employee in the implementing rules. The overtime rule likely applies to her; the overtime pay calculator shows how the rates work.

Ramon is a department head who runs a team of ten, hires staff and decides promotions. He meets all three conditions for a managerial employee, so the Labor Code's overtime rule does not apply to him, unless his contract or company policy gives overtime pay.

Whether someone is truly managerial staff or field personnel depends on job descriptions, actual duties, how the work is supervised and how hours are tracked. Talk to a lawyer, your union or the Public Attorney's Office if large overtime claims are at stake or if your title does not match what you actually do. If you cannot afford a lawyer, see Free legal help in the Philippines.