Probationary, Regular and Project Employees: Your Status and Rights

The rule is [Article 295 [280]](/law/labor-code/article-295). Its first paragraph begins:

So the nature of the work decides. A contract that calls the job "contractual" or "temporary" does not, by itself, stop the employee from being regular. See regular employee and When does an employee become regular?

Article 295 names two: employment fixed for a specific project or undertaking whose completion or termination was determined when the employee was hired, and seasonal work where the employment lasts for the season.

Project employees. In Engineering & Construction Corporation of Asia v. Palle (2020), the Supreme Court said the main test is whether the employee was assigned to a specific project whose duration and scope were specified when he or she was engaged. The employer must prove it. Without that proof, the worker is presumed regular. The Court also treated the employer's failure to report the end of each project to DOLE as a sign that the workers were regular. Long service alone does not make a construction worker regular, the Court said, but repeated hiring without telling the worker the project's scope can. See Project employees: rights and when they become regular.

Seasonal employees are hired for work that is seasonal in nature, for the duration of the season. This page does not go further into seasonal work.

Employment that does not fall under the first paragraph of Article 295 is casual. The second paragraph says:

So one year of service, even with gaps, makes a casual employee regular for that activity.

An employee on trial. [Article 296 [281]](/law/labor-code/article-296) sets the limits:

A probationary employee may be let go for a just cause, or for failing to qualify under reasonable standards that the employer made known at the time of hiring. In Abbott Laboratories v. Alcaraz (2013), the Court quoted the implementing rule: the standards must be made known to the employee at the time of engagement, and where no standards are made known, the employee is deemed regular. The Court said an employer meets this duty when it makes reasonable efforts to tell the employee what he or she must do during probation, and that it is not needed when the job is self-descriptive, such as maids, cooks, drivers or messengers.

The same article says that "An employee who is allowed to work after a probationary period shall be considered a regular employee." In C.P. Reyes Hospital v. Barbosa (2024), the full Supreme Court said this happens by force and operation of law, so no regularization letter is needed. The Court also said a probationary employee dismissed for a just cause gets the same two-notice due process as a regular employee, and that an illegally dismissed probationary employee gets backwages the same way.

See Can a probationary employee be terminated? and Probationary vs regular employee.

They may be employees of a legitimate contractor, or, in labor-only contracting, employees of the company itself. Under Article 106, whose number did not change in the 2015 renumbering, there is labor-only contracting when the agency has no substantial capital or investment, such as tools, equipment, machinery or work premises, and its workers do activities directly related to the company's principal business. The agency is then treated as a mere agent of the company, which is responsible to the workers as if it had hired them directly.

Even with a legitimate contractor, if the contractor fails to pay the wages its workers are owed, the company is jointly and severally liable with it to the extent of the work done under the contract. In Daguinod v. Southgate Foods (2019), the Court said registration with DOLE is only presumptive proof that a contractor is legitimate. See Endo and labor-only contracting and labor-only contracting.

Because of security of tenure. Under [Article 294 [279]](/law/labor-code/article-294), in cases of regular employment, the employer may not end the services of an employee except for a just cause or when authorized by the Code's title on termination of employment. An employee unjustly dismissed is entitled to reinstatement without loss of seniority and to full backwages. A project ending or a probation not passed can be lawful reasons to end employment; a label in a contract is not.

The grounds for dismissal and what an illegally dismissed employee can get are explained in the employee rights topic, Just cause vs authorized cause and Illegally dismissed: what can you get?. For amounts due on separation, see the final pay and separation pay guide and the separation pay calculator.

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

Carlo is hired as a "probationary" cashier in a supermarket. Nobody tells him what standards he must meet. Cashiering is necessary to the supermarket's business. Since no standards were made known when he was hired, the rule quoted in Abbott treats him as regular.

Weng is hired as a sales clerk on five-month contracts that are renewed again and again through an agency with no equipment or premises of its own. If the agency is a labor-only contractor, the store is treated as her employer, and her status is judged by the work she does for the store.

Dodong is a mason hired "for the construction of Building A." His contract states the project and its expected end. When Building A is finished, his project employment can end. If he is then rehired on project after project without being told each project's duration and scope, he may be presumed regular.

Talk to a lawyer before you sign a new "contractual" contract after months of the same work, if your probation is extended past six months, or if your employment ends when a project or contract ends and you believe the work goes on. A lawyer can check the documents the employer must be able to show. If you cannot afford a lawyer, see Free legal help in the Philippines.