Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVI
Quezon City

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owe 91 JUL 2013

Introduced by: HON. MA. VICTORIA R. SY-ALVARADO.

16" Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No.6 56

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Continued economic growth can only be assured if the workers, on whose backs capital is
transformed to profit retums and further capital, are adequately recompensed for the goods and services
they produce; it is after all from the pockets of these workers that domestic consumption comes from.
However, proper compensation is, on not normal situations, not solely dependent upon the quality and
quantity of work done. Special consideration should be accorded to extra ordinary situations wherein
employees are faced with the additional burdens other than their workload. It is in the interest of our
People that we, as their representatives, act in furtherance of their well being,

This bill seeks to increase the night shift differential rate, as provided by the Labor Code of the
Philippines. The rate is currently pegged at ten percent (10%) over and above the regular wage. However,
recent social experience and reality have shown that the rate is grossly inadequate. Employees burning the
midnight oil are deprived of the ordinary and natural course of their biological clock, adversely affecting
their health and wellness. They are highly susceptible to illness, both common and serious, and to various
aches and pains in their body. It is highly suspect that the current differential can even meet the expense
of medical attention, traditional or alternative, they will need as they progress in life.

The adverse effects of nighttime works are not confined to the old-age rational of health and
wellness. The night also holds more secrets that can lead to a more direct danger to the life, liberty and
property of this special class of employees. Criminal elements are notorious in seeking the special cover
provided by darkness in the furtherance of their malicious intent. It is only but proper that additional
Compensation should be accorded to those who risk life and lim more in the exercise of their livelihood
or profession; the case is similar to an incorporation of hazard pay to the night differential, The same
justification can be extended to a multitude of other dangers nighttime employees’ face, in the
performance of their work, duties and responsibilities, and in going to and from their work places,

Lastly, it should be noted that unscrupulous employers might be able to circumvent the spirit and
intendments of having a night shift differential in favor of the nighttime workers. In reclassifying the
nomenclature of their workforce, daytime and nighttime employees performing essentially the similar and
related works, duties and functions are treated in different categories with unequal base regular wage.
This ought to be corrected, and safeguards within the law should be enacted such that the law may prevail
over those who seek to bend it.

MA. VICTORIA R. SY-ALVARADO.


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City
16" Congress
First Regular Session

re
HOUSE BILL NO. 856

Introduced by: Rep. Ma. Victoria R. Sy-Alvarado

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE INCREASE IN THE RATE AND CHANGING OF THE TIME
WINDOW OF THE NIGHT SHIFT DIFI (TIAL, AS PROVIDED BY THE LABOR CODE OF
‘THE PHILIPPINES

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:

Section 1. Short Title— This Act shall be known as the “Night Workers’ Additional
Compensation Act of 2013.

Sec. 2. Declaration of Principles and Policies

(a) The State, in light of the ever growing demands of mode businesses and
industries for round-the-clock supply of labor, recognizes the rights of employees
to be properly compensated for hours worked, which by the ordinary and natural
‘course of things, are supposed to be time spent for rest and recreation, Cognizant
of this, the legislature, exercising its wisdom as entrusted by the people, hereby
declare that additional compensation shall be granted in exchange for the
foregone health and wellness benefits of following the ordinary and natural
biological rhythm of the human body.

(b) The State, in the exercise of its duty to safeguard the safety and welfare of the
people and mindful of the growing threat of criminal activities carried out at the
cover of the dead hours of night, hereby declare, through the wisdom of the
people entrusted upon their representatives, do hereby declare that additional

ae be granted to nighttime workers.


(©) The State, through the wisdom of the people as exercised by their legislature,
takes notice of the business practice of treating nighttime workers as a separate
and distinct class or category of worker within a business entity, thereby avoiding
the payment of the mandatory night time differential to said nighttime workers
which should have been in the first place be over and above the regular wage of
their daytime counterparts, in the performance of highly similar duties and
functions.

Sec. 3. In the interests of tempering laissez faire with welfare economics, Article 86 of
Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended, entitled “A DECREE INSTITUTING A LABOR CODE
THEREBY REVISING AND CONSOLIDATING LABOR AND SOCIAL LAWS TO AFFORD
PROTECTION TO LABOR, PROMOTE EMPLOYMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCES
DEVELOPMENT AND INSURE INDUSTRIAL PEACE BASED ON SOCIAL JUSTICE,”
otherwise known as “THE LABOR CODE OF THE PHILIPPINES,” is hereby amended to read as
follows:

Art. 86. Night shift differential. Every employee shall be paid a night shift differential
of not less than fifteen percent (15%) of his regular wage for each hour of work
performed between eight o’clock in the evening and four o’clock in the moming,

Employees working within said window, performing the same work, duties and
functions as employees working outside said window, shall be deemed to have the
regular wage equal to that of the latter, regardless of different titles, designation, or
‘other nomenclature of position between the two. The night shift differential shall be
computed over and above said regular wage.

Sec. 4. Exemptions ~ The Department of Labor and Employment shall promulgate the necessary rules
and regulations for employers to apply for an exemption from said increase in the night shift
differential, PROVIDED that such exemption, if granted, shall not be exempted from the previous
differential of ten percent (10%).

See. 5. The proper government agencies are hereby directed to implement this Act.

Sec, 6. Effectivity — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days from the date of its complete
publication in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

Approved,

_-

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