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WHY LABOR EMERGED As long as men remained satisfied with their rustic cabins; as long as they confined themselves to the use of clothes made of the skins of other animals, and the use of thorns and fish-bones, in putting those skins together; as long as they continued to consider feather and shells...

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WHY LABOR EMERGED As long as men remained satisfied with their rustic cabins; as long as they confined themselves to the use of clothes made of the skins of other animals, and the use of thorns and fish-bones, in putting those skins together; as long as they continued to consider feather and shells as sufficient ornaments, and to paint their bodies of different colors, to improve or ornament their bows and arrows, to form and scoop out with sharp-edged stones some little fishing boats, or clumsy instruments of music; in a word, as long as they undertook such works only as a single person could finish, and stuck to such arts as did not require the j o i n t endeavors of several hands, they lived freely, healthy, honest, and happy, as much as their nature would admit, and continued to enjoy with each other all pleasures of an independent intercourse; but from the moment one man began to stand in need for another's assistance; from the m o m e n t it appeared an advantage for one man to possess the quantity of provisions requisite for two, all equality vanished; property started up; labor b e c a m e necessary; and boundless forests b e c a m e smiling fields, which it was found necessary to water with human sweat, and in which slavery and misery were seen to sprout out and grow with the fruits of the earth....

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind (1754)

LAW MUST RESPOND T h o s e of us who are, or have remained, students of the law must always be aware of how the world changes in order for us to know how the law must respond. H I L A R I O G. DAVIDE. J r . Chief Justice Supreme Court of the Philippines

SOLICITUDE F O R LABOR We have insisted that, since it is the end of Society to make men better, the c h i e f good that Society can be possessed of is virtue. Nevertheless, in all well-constituted States it is by no means unimportant matter to provide those bodily and external commodities, "the use of which is necessary to virtuous action." And in the provision of material well-being, the labor of the p o o r — the exercise of their skill and the employment o f their strength in the culture of the land and the workshops to trade — is most efficacious and altogether indispensable. Indeed, their cooperation in this respect is so important that it may be truly said that it is only by the labor of the working man that States grow. J u s t i c e , therefore, demands that the interests of the poorer population be carefully watched over by the Administration, so that they who contribute so largely to the advantage of the community may themselves share in the benefits they create — that being housed, clothed, and enabled to support life, they may find their existence less hard and m o r e endurable. It follows that whatever shall appear to be conducive "to the well-being of those who work should receive favorable consideration. Let it not be feared that solicitude of this kind will injure any interests; on the contrary, it will be to the advantage of all; for it cannot but be good for the commonwealth to secure from misery those on whom it so largely depends.... POPE LEO XIII Rerum Novarum (1891)

E Q U I T Y DEMANDS WORKERS' SHARE No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who food, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged. ADAM S M I T H The Wealth of Nations (1776) (Penguin Books, 1986), p. 181

LAW AND LABOR Law: an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community. ST. T H O M A S AQUINAS Summa Theologica

Few laws are of general application. It is of the nature of our law that it has dealt not with man in general, but with him in relationships. Nearly all legislation involves a weighing of public needs as against private desires; and, likewise, a weighing of relative social values. LOUIS D. BRANDEIS Dissent, Traux vs. Corrigan, 257 U.S. 312 ( 1 9 2 1 )

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? H E N R Y DAVID T H O R E A U On the Duty of Civil Disobedience ( 1 9 4 9 )

Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, or that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. ABRAHAM L I N C O L N Address at Springfield, Illinois ( 1 8 3 7 )

Labor is the great producer of wealth: it moves all other causes. DANIEL W E B S T E R House o f Representatives ( 1 8 2 4 )

TWO MASTERS Equality of right exists between the employer and the employee. T h e right of a laborer to sell his labor to such persons as he may choose is, in its essence, the same as the right of an employer to purchase labor from any person whom he chooses. T h e e m p l o y e r and the e m p l o y e e have a n equality o f right guaranteed by the Constitution. If the employer can compel the employee to work against the latter's will, this is servitude. If the employee can compel the employer to give him work against the employer's will, this is oppression. CHIEF J U S T I C E MARCELO B. FERNAN International Catholic Migration Commission vs. NLRC, G.R. No. 72222, J a n u a r y 3 0 , 1989

L a b o r laws, like human resource management, have human and economic ends. They must support, if not propel, productive p e r f o r m a n c e of the enterprise while protecting, if not providing, human dignity and human necessities. In relation to capital, labor laws must respect the logic, the fairness and the need for realizing reasonable return on investment. In relation to labor, labor laws must safeguard the logic, the fairness and the need for rewarding one's contribution to the harvests of the investment. Indeed, labor laws should support two masters. Laws, especially labor laws, are passed to address social inequities, to minimize social frictions, to uplift the common man. T h e y are needed not to equalize poverty but to distribute wealth. A law that does not help improve social conditions is either an irrelevancy, an artifice, or a burden. It may even be a cause of the people's poverty. C. A. A Z U C E N A , J R .

RELIMINAR TITLE

PRELIMINARY TITLE Chapter I GENERAL PROVISIONS x

Overview/Key Questions: °° 1 1. What is labor law and what does it aim to achieve? 2. What are the constitutional mandates pertaining to labor and labor-management relations? 3. Do Philippine labor laws meet international labor standards? 4. Are Philippine labor laws pro-labor?

A R T I C L E 1. NAME OF DECREE This Decree shall be known as the "Labor Code of the Philippines." ART. 2. DATE OF EFFECTIVITY This Code shall take effect six ( 6 ) months after its promulgation. COMMENTS AND CASES 1.

LABOR LEGISLATION; DEFINITIONS Labor legislation consists of statutes, regulations and jurisprudence governing the relations between capital and labor, by providing for certain employment standards and a legal framework for negotiating, adjusting and administering those standards and other incidents of employmentT h e above definition shows that labor legislation is broadly divided into labor standards and labor relations. We define labor standards law as that which sets out the least or basic terms, conditions and benefits of employment that employers must provide or comply with and to which employees are entitled as a matter of legal right. Labor standards, as defined more specifically by jurisprudence, are the minimum requirements prescribed by existing laws, rules and regulations relating to wages, hours of work, cost-of-living allowance, and other monetary and welfare benefits, including occupational, safety, and health standards. 1

'Maternity Children's Hospital vs. Secretary of Labor, G.R. No. 78909,June 30, 1989. 7

We define labor relations law, on the other hand, as that which defines the status, rights and duties, and the institutional mechanisms that govern the individual and collective interactions of employers, employees or their representatives. Although the distinction between labor standards and labor relations is useful for academic purposes, they in reality overlap. For instance, the grievance machinery (the in-house method to resolve usually an employee's complaint) is a labor relations mechanism, but very often the subject of the complaint is labor standards such as unpaid overtime work or a disciplinary action. Figuratively, one may think of labor standards as the material or the substance to be processed while labor relations is the mechanism that processes the substance. Thus defined, Books One to Four of the Labor Code deal largely with labor standards while Books Five and Six cover labor relations. Issues about employment tenure and termination fall in the area of labor relations. The Supreme Court itself, in a decision penned by a former labor secretary, said; "It is an elementary rule in the law on labor relations that even a probationary employee is entitled to security of tenure." Even prior to the Labor Code, when labor laws were scattered in more than sixty statutes, employment termination was treated academically as a subject in labor relations. For instance, writers Perfecto V. Fernandez and Camilo D. Quiazon took up the subject of employee dismissal in their Volume I titled "Labor Relations" and not in Volume II "Labor Standards" (1963 and 1964 editions). 1

Is "labor" different from "industrial" relations? Again, the question is largely theoretical. Some academics use labor relations to refer to situations involving unionized companies and industrial relations for non-unionized ones, or labor relations to refer to matters internal to the labor sector and industrial relations to" management-labor interactions. The two terms are, practically, interchangeable. "Labor," in ordinary signification, is understood as physical toil although it does not necessarily exclude the application of skill, thus there is skilled and unskilled labor. "Skill," by dictionary definition, is the familiar knowledge of any art or science, united with readiness and dexterity in execution or performance or in the application of the art or science to practical purposes. "Work" is broader than "labor" as "work" covers all forms of physical or mental exertion, or both combined, for the attainment of some object other than recreation or amusement per se. For this reason "worker" is broader than "employee," as "workers" may refer to self-employed people and those working in the service and under the control of another, regardless of rank, title, or nature of work. A messenger, as 'Sameer Overseas Placement Agency, Inc. vs. NLRC and P. Endozo, G.R. No. 132564, October 20, 1999. 8

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well as a manager, is a worker. In fact, under Article 13 of the Labor Code, any member of the labor force, whether employed or unemployed, is a "worker."' "Employee" is a salaried person working for another who controls or supervises the means, manner or method of doing the work. Employment relationship is expounded in Book III of this work. 2.

LABOR LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Distinction exists between "labor law" and "social legislation" but it is not easy to delineate. No law dictionary, local or foreign, defines "social legislation." But a definition is called for. We define social legislation as those laws that provide particular kinds of protection or benefits to society or segments thereof in furtherance of social justice. In that sense, labor laws are necessarily social legislation. Agrarian reform law is a social legislation, so is the law providing for a social security system. T h e Labor Code provisions on State Insurance Fund to cover work-related injuries and occupational diseases are, likewise, pieces of social legislation. Insisting to differentiate, some authors contend that "labor laws" directly affect employment while "social legislation" governs effects of employment. This insistence hardly makes things clear. For instance, it is hardly defensible to say that emergency medical treatment rendered at the worksite to a worker is covered by "labor law" but not by social legislation, while medical treatment rendered outside the workplace to the same person for the same injury involves a "social legislation" but not a labor law. Specifically, how can one say that medical treatment under Article 156 of the Labor Code is labor law but not social legislation, while sickness benefit under Section 14 of the Social Security law is social legislation but not labor law? If distinction must be stressed at all, it is simply in the sense that labor laws are social legislation but not all social legislations are labor laws. In other words, in relation to each other, social legislation as a concept is broader, labor laws narrower. 3.

SOCIAL JUSTICE AS THE AIM

T h e aim and the reason and, therefore, the justification of labor laws is social justice. Social justice, according to Dr. J o s e P. Laurel in Calalang vs. Williams (70 Phil. 726 [ 1 9 4 0 ] ) , is "neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism nor anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures 'These two volumes mean to be gender-free. "He," "his," "worker," or "man" refers to a person, not necessarily male, unless the context obviously means otherwise. 9

ARTS. 1-2

PRELIMINARY TITLE

calculated to insure economic stability of all the component elements of society through the maintenance of proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments, on the timehonored principle of salus populi est suprema lex." In essence, social justice is both a juridical principle and a societal goal. As a juridical principle, it prescribes equality of the people, rich or poor, before the law. As a goal, it means the attainment of decent quality of life of the masses through humane productive efforts. T h e process and the goal are inseparable because one is the synergistic cause and effect of the other — legal equality opens opportunities that strengthen equality that creates more opportunities. The pursuit of social justice does not require making the rich poor but, by lawful process, making the rich share with government the responsibility of realizing social justice as an end. This perception proceeds from a forthright p r o n o u n c e m e n t by our Supreme Court way back in 1949: Social justice does not champion division of property or equality of economic status; what it and the Constitution do guaranty are equality of opportunity, equality of political rights, equality before the law, equality between values given and received, and equitable sharing of the social and material goods on the basis of efforts exerted in their production. (Guido vs. Rural Progress Administration, L-2089, October 31, 1949.) The 1987 Constitution, formulated by the 1986 Constitutional Commission and ratified by the people on February 2, 1987, gives fundamental significance to social justice. T h e Declaration of State Policies provides that "the State shall" promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure the prosperity and independence of the nation and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life for all." 1

Succinctly, the Constitution says "the State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development." Furthermore, "the State affirms labor as a primary social economic force." Therefore, "it shall protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare." 2

Not content with these basic State policy declarations, the Commission devotes an entire article — Article XIII with 14 sections — to "Social Justice and Human Rights." This Article in part provides: "Section I. The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and enhance the right of all the people to human 'Article II, Sec. 9. Article II, Sec. 10.

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ARTS. 1-2

dignity, reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the common good. ' T o this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and disposition of property and its increments. "Sec. 2. The promotion of social justice shall include the commitment to create economic opportunities based on freedom of initiative and selfreliance." In particular reference to labor, Section 3 says that "the State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all." It can be seen that the social justice concept in the 1987 Constitution transcends the economic sphere. Political equality is likewise a goal of social justice. Towards this aim the State is commanded not just to create economic opportunities but also to diffuse economic wealth. 'This," says the constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., "is a recognition of the reality that, in a situation of extreme mass poverty, political rights, no matter how strongly guaranteed by the constitution, become largely rights enjoyed by the upper and middle classes and are a myth for the underprivileged. Without the improvement of economic conditions there can be no real enhancement of the political rights of the people." 1

4. CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND MANDATES Like other laws initiated by Congress (called "statutes"), the Labor Code is an instrument to carry out constitutional mandates. If there should be conflict between constitutional provisions and those of the Labor Code, the Constitution shall prevail as it is the highest law of the land. The basic policy declared in Article 3 of the Code is pursuant to the constitutional mandates. T h e workers in the Philippines could claim a certain unique advantage not enjoyed by workers in many countries of the world: The Constitution of the Philippines commands that "the State shall afford protection to labor." This is a command found in the 1935 Constitution, untouched in the 1973 Constitution as well as in the present (1987) Constitution. T h e 1987 Constitution declares as a state policy: ' T h e state affirms labor as a primary social economic force. It shall protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare." 2

Joaquin Bernas, S.J., The Constitution of the Philippines: A Commentary, 1988 ed., p. 470. ^roilan M. Bacungan, 1998. "Labor and Social Legislation in the Philippines: An Overview"; University of the Philippines, School of Labor and Industrial Relations. 11

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PRELIMINARY TITLE

The basic rights of workers guaranteed by the Constitution are: the rights to organize themselves; to conduct collective bargaining or negotiation with management; to engage in peaceful concerted activities, including to strike in accordance with law;...