FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES

A. 1987 PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION:

State Policies

Article II

SECTION 9. 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. (*Promotion of Full
Employment)

SECTION 10. The State shall promote social justice in all phases of
national development. (* Promotion of Social Justice)

SECTION 11. The State values the dignity of every human person and
guarantees full respect for human rights. (*According dignity to a
person in the observance of his human rights in the workplace)

SECTION 13. The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-
building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual,
intellectual, and social well-being. It shall inculcate in the youth
patriotism and nationalism, and encourage their involvement in public
and civic affairs.

(*Role of the youth in possible employment concerns)

SECTION 14. The State recognizes the role of women in nation-

building, and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of
women and men.

(*The State shall protect the working women and that her
gender/status should not be a hindrance to better working conditions
etc.)

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SECTION 18. The State affirms labor as a primary social economic
force. It shall protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare.

(* Recognition of Labor as a Social Economic Force)

SECTION 20. The State recognizes the indispensable role of the

private sector, encourages private enterprise, and provides
incentives to needed investments.

(*Role of the private sector to provide capital and employment benefits to

workers in business)

ARTICLE III
Bill of Rights

SECTION 1. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property

without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal
protection of the laws.

(*Employment is deemed property within the meaning of the Constitutional

guarantee, hence, an employee cannot be deprived of his employment
without due process of law)

SECTION 4. No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech,

of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

(*The freedom to stage legal picketing and strikes for the private sector.
Although if in government sector, freedom to strike is not allowed. Peaceful
picketing during off duty may be undertaken by government workers which
should not hamper the delivery of basic services)

SECTION 7. The right of the people to information on matters of

public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to
documents, and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or
decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for
policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such
limitations as may be provided by law.

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(*Regulated access to official legal documents from DOLE in connection
with its duties and functions and from the labor courts)

SECTION 8. The right of the people, including those employed in the

public and private sectors, to form unions, associations, or societies
for purposes not contrary to law shall not be abridged.

(*Right to Form Associations, Unions not contrary to public policy, customs

and laws)

SECTION 10. No law impairing the obligation of contracts shall be

passed.

(*A law impairs an obligation when it takes from a party to which he is

entitled or deprives him of the means of enforcing such a right)

SECTION 11. Free access to the courts and quasi-judicial bodies and
adequate legal assistance shall not be denied to any person by
reason of poverty.

(*Role of the Public Attorney’s Office/IBP Free Legal Aid programs to

provide legal services to the underprivileged

SECTION 16. All persons shall have the right to a speedy disposition
of their cases before all judicial, quasi-judicial, or administrative
bodies.

(* Speedy but expeditious handling and disposition of labor cases)

(2) No involuntary servitude in any form shall exist except as a

punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted.

(* Unless falling under the exceptional circumstances enumerated in the

Labor Code, a covered employee cannot be compelled to render overtime
work or render service during his rest day because that would run counter
to the constitutional injunction against involuntary servitude. The same
holds true to an employee who voluntarily resigns from his employment
without giving 30-day notice to the employer.)

ART. XIII

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 SOCIAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1. The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment

of measures that protect and enhance the right of all the people to
human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political inequalities,
and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and
political power for the common good.

To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use,
and disposition of property and its increments.

Section 2. The promotion of social justice shall include the

commitment to create economic opportunities based on freedom of
initiative and self-reliance.

LABOR

Section 3. 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 shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization,

collective bargaining and negotiations, and peaceful concerted
activities, including the right to strike in accordance with law. They
shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and
a living wage. They shall also participate in policy and decision-
making processes affecting their rights and benefits as may be
provided by law.

The State shall promote the principle of shared responsibility

between workers and employers and the preferential use of voluntary
modes in settling disputes, including conciliation, and shall enforce
their mutual compliance therewith to foster industrial peace.

The State shall regulate the relations between workers and

employers, recognizing the right of labor to its just share in the fruits
of production and the right of enterprises to reasonable returns to
investments, and to expansion and growth.

AGRARIAN AND NATURAL RESOURCES REFORM

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Section 4. The State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program
founded on the right of farmers and regular farmworkers who are landless,
to own directly or collectively the lands they till or, in the case of other
farmworkers, to receive a just share of the fruits thereof. To this end, the
State shall encourage and undertake the just distribution of all agricultural
lands, subject to such priorities and reasonable retention limits as the
Congress may prescribe, taking into account ecological, developmental, or
equity considerations, and subject to the payment of just compensation. In
determining retention limits, the State shall respect the right of small
landowners. The State shall further provide incentives for voluntary land-
sharing.

Section 5. The State shall recognize the right of farmers, farmworkers, and
landowners, as well as cooperatives, and other independent farmers’
organizations to participate in the planning, organization, and management
of the program, and shall provide support to agriculture through appropriate
technology and research, and adequate financial, production, marketing,
and other support services.

Section 6. The State shall apply the principles of agrarian reform or

stewardship, whenever applicable in accordance with law, in the disposition
or utilization of other natural resources, including lands of the public domain
under lease or concession suitable to agriculture, subject to prior rights,
homestead rights of small settlers, and the rights of indigenous
communities to their ancestral lands.

The State may resettle landless farmers and farmworkers in its own
agricultural estates which shall be distributed to them in the manner
provided by law.

Section 7. The State shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen,

especially of local communities, to the preferential use of the communal
marine and fishing resources, both inland and offshore. It shall provide
support to such fishermen through appropriate technology and research,
adequate financial, production, and marketing assistance, and other
services. The State shall also protect, develop, and conserve such
resources. The protection shall extend to offshore fishing grounds of
subsistence fishermen against foreign intrusion. Fishworkers shall receive
a just share from their labor in the utilization of marine and fishing
resources.

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Section 8. The State shall provide incentives to landowners to invest the
proceeds of the agrarian reform program to promote industrialization,
employment creation, and privatization of public sector enterprises.
Financial instruments used as payment for their lands shall be honored as
equity in enterprises of their choice.

HEALTH

Section 13. The State shall establish a special agency for disabled
persons for their rehabilitation, self-development, and self-reliance,
and their integration into the mainstream of society.

WOMEN

Section 14. The State shall protect working women by providing safe
and healthful working conditions, taking into account their maternal
functions, and such facilities and opportunities that will enhance their
welfare and enable them to realize their full potential in the service of
the nation.

B. CIVIL CODE

ARTICLE 19:

1. Every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the

performance of his duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and
observe honesty and good faith.

(*This provision codifies the concepts of justice and fair play. This
prevents a person from abusing the rights that he may otherwise have,
against another. The law, therefore, recognizes the primordial limitation on all
rights; that in their exercise, the norms of human conduct set forth in Article 19
must be observed. A right, although legal because recognized or granted by
law, may nevertheless become a source of some illegality. When a right is
exercised in a manner which does not conform with the norms enshrined in
Article 19 and results in damage to another, a legal wrong is thereby
committed for which the wrongdoer must be held responsible.)

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 CHAPTER 3
Work and Labor

SECTION 2
Contract of Labor :

Article 1700. The relations between capital and labor are not merely
contractual. They are so impressed with public interest that labor contracts
must yield to the common good. Therefore, such contracts are subject to
the special laws on labor unions, collective bargaining, strikes and lockouts,
closed shop, wages, working conditions, hours of labor and similar
subjects.

Article 1701. Neither capital nor labor shall act oppressively against the
other, or impair the interest or convenience of the public.

Article 1702. In case of doubt, all labor legislation and all labor contracts
shall be construed in favor of the safety and decent living for the laborer.

Article 1703. No contract which practically amounts to involuntary

servitude, under any guise whatsoever, shall be valid.

Article 1704. In collective bargaining, the labor union or members of the

board or committee signing the contract shall be liable for non-fulfillment
thereof.

Article 1705. The laborer's wages shall be paid in legal currency.

Article 1706.  Withholding of the wages, except for a debt due, shall not be
made by the employer.

Article 1707. The laborer's wages shall be a lien on the goods

manufactured or the work done.

Article 1708. The laborer's wages shall not be subject to execution or

attachment, except for debts incurred for food, shelter, clothing and medical
attendance.

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Article 1709. The employer shall neither seize nor retain any tool or other
articles belonging to the laborer.

Article 1710. Dismissal of laborers shall be subject to the supervision of

the Government, under special laws.

Article 1711. Owners of enterprises and other employers are obliged to

pay compensation for the death of or injuries to their laborers, workmen,
mechanics or other employees, even though the event may have been
purely accidental or entirely due to a fortuitous cause, if the death or
personal injury arose out of and in the course of the employment. The
employer is also liable for compensation if the employee contracts any
illness or disease caused by such employment or as the result of the nature
of the employment. If the mishap was due to the employee's own notorious
negligence, or voluntary act, or drunkenness, the employer shall not be
liable for compensation. When the employee's lack of due care contributed
to his death or injury, the compensation shall be equitably reduced.

Article 1712. If the death or injury is due to the negligence of a fellow

worker, the latter and the employer shall be solidarily liable for
compensation. If a fellow worker's intentional or malicious act is the only
cause of the death or injury, the employer shall not be answerable, unless it
should be shown that the latter did not exercise due diligence in the
selection or supervision of the plaintiff's fellow worker

C. LABOR CODE (PD 442):

Date of Effectivity: 01 November 1974 (Six months after its

promulgation on 01 May 1974)

Art. 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.

Art. 3. Declaration of basic policy. The State shall afford protection to

labor, promote full employment, ensure equal work opportunities regardless
of sex, race or creed and regulate the relations between workers and
employers. The State shall assure the rights of workers to self-organization,

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collective bargaining, security of tenure, and just and humane conditions of
work.

Art. 4. Construction in favor of labor. All doubts in the implementation

and interpretation of the provisions of this Code, including its implementing
rules and regulations, shall be resolved in favor of labor.