PRELIMINARY TITLE

Chapter I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1: NAME OF DECREE
Article 2: DATE OF EFFECTIVITY
COMMENTS AND CASES
1. LABOR LEGISLATION; DEFINITIONS
Broadly divided into labor standards and labor relations
Labor standards law is that which sets out the minimum terms, conditions, and benefits of employment that employers must
provide and comply with and to which employees are entitled to as a matter of right.
Labor relations law is 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.
Labor is understood as physical toil, although it does not necessarily involve the application of skill. 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 science or art 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.
2. LABOR LAW AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION
Social legislation includes 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.
3. SOCIAL JUSTICE AS THE AIM
The aim, reason, and justification for labor laws is social justice.
Section 3 of Article XIII 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.”
This is because “without the improvement of economic conditions, there can be no real enhancement of the political rights of
the people.”
4. CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND MADNESS
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, to enjoy security of tenure, to work under humane
conditions, to receive a living wage, to participate in policy and decision making processes affecting their rights and benefits as
may be provided by law.
4.1. Balancing of Rights; the Constitutional Principle of Shared Responsibility
While labor is entitled to a just share in the fruits of production, the enterprise has an equally important right not only to
reasonable returns in investment but also to expansion and growth. The Constitution commands the State to promote the principle
of shared responsibility between employers and workers and the preferential use of voluntary modes of settling disputes, including
conciliation, and to enforce their mutual compliance therewith to foster industrial peace.
Constitutional outlook suggests a balanced treatment.
5. POLICE POWER AS THE BASIS
The right of every person to pursue a business, occupation or profession is subject to the paramount right of the government as
a part of its police power to impose such
restrictions and regulations as the protection of the public may require.
6. BIRTH OF THE LABOR CODE
Writing began under Blas Ople, Father of the Labor Code
The objective was not merely to consolidate the then existing pieces of social legislation, but also to reorient them to the needs
of economic development and justice.
7. PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE CODE
Must be both responsive and responsible to national development
Must substitute rationality for confrontation in times of national emergencies
Must be made expeditious without sacrificing due process
Manpower development and employment must be regarded as a major dimension of labor policy
Availability of a global labor market to qualified Filipinos
Must command adequate resources and acquire capable machinery for effective and sustained implementation
There should be popular participation in national policy making through what is now called tripartism
8. SOME LABOR LAWS BEFORE THE PASSAGE OF THE CODE
Act 1874 or the Employer’s Liability Act