Piece-rate workers, entitled to holiday pay

Section 8 of Rule IV on "Holiday Pay of Certain Employees" states: "Holiday pay of certain employees. — x x x (b) Where a covered employee is paid by results or output, such as payment on piece work, his holiday pay shall not be less than his average daily earnings for the last seven (7) actual working days immediately preceding the regular holiday; Provided, however, That in no case shall the holiday pay be less than the applicable statutory minimum wage rate."

A piece-rate employee is entitled to holiday pay. Article. 94 says: "Right to holiday pay. (a) Every worker shall be paid his regular daily wage during regular holidays, except in retail and service establishments regularly employing less than (10) workers."

It must be recalled that, under Title I of Book III of the Labor Code of the Philippines, workers paid by results are not entitled to the benefits under said Title. These benefits include overtime pay, night-shift differential and holiday premium. However, it has been clarified by the Supreme Court that piece-rate workers or those workers paid by results who are supervised are not excluded from Title I benefits.

"Field personnel and other employees whose time and performance is unsupervised by the employer including those who are engaged on task or contract basis, purely commission basis, or those who are paid a fixed amount for performing work irrespective of the time consumed in the performance thereof."(Section 1, Rule IV of Book 3 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations, the Labor Code)