SECTION 1. General statement on coverage. — This Rule shall apply to all employers, whether operating for profit or not, including educational, religious and charitable institutions, except to the Government and to government-owned or controlled corporations and to employers of household helpers and persons in their personal service insofar as such workers are concerned.
SECTION 2. Employable age. — Children below fifteen (15) years of age may be allowed to work under the direct responsibility of their parents or guardians in any non-hazardous undertaking where the work will not in any way interfere with their schooling. In such cases, the children shall not be considered as employees of the employers or their parents or guardians.
SECTION 3. Eligibility for employment. — Any person of either sex, between 15 and 18 years of age, may be employed in any non-hazardous work. No employer shall discriminate against such person in regard to terms and conditions of employment on account of his age.
For purposes of this Rule, a non-hazardous work or undertaking shall mean any work or activity in which the employee is not exposed to any risk which constitutes an imminent danger to his safety and health. The Secretary of Labor and Employment shall from time to time publish a list of hazardous work and activities in which persons 18 years of age and below cannot be employed.
SECTION 4. Status of women workers in certain work places. — Any woman who is permitted or suffered to work with or without compensation, in any night club, cocktail lounge, beer house, massage clinic, bar or similar establishments, under the effective control or supervision of the employer for a substantial period of time as determined by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, shall be considered as an employee of such establishments for purposes of labor and social legislation. No employer shall discriminate against such employees or in any manner reduce whatever benefits they are now enjoying by reason of the provisions of this Section.
SECTION 5. Night work of women employees. — Any woman employed in any industrial undertaking may be allowed to work beyond 10:00 o'clock at night, or beyond 12:00 o'clock midnight in the case of women employees of commercial or non-industrial enterprises, in any of the following cases:
(a) In cases of actual or impending emergencies caused by serious accident, fire, flood, typhoon, earthquakes, epidemic or other disaster or calamity, to prevent loss of life or property or in cases of force majeure or imminent danger to public safety;
(b) In case of urgent work to be performed on machineries, equipment or installation, to avoid serious loss which the employer would otherwise suffer;
(c) Where the work is necessary to prevent serious loss of perishable goods;
(d) Where the woman employee holds a responsible position of a managerial or technical nature, or where the woman employee has been engaged to provide health and welfare services;
(e) Where the nature of the work requires the manual skill and dexterity of women and the same cannot be performed with equal efficiency by male workers or where the employment of women is the established practice in the enterprises concerned on the date these Rules become effective; and
(f) Where the women employees are immediate members of the family operating the establishment or undertaking.
The Secretary of Labor and Employment shall from time to time determine cases analogous to the foregoing for purposes of this Section.
SECTION 6. Agricultural work. — No woman, regardless of age, shall be permitted or suffered to work, with or without compensation, in any agricultural undertaking at night time unless she is given a rest period of not less than nine (9) consecutive hours, subject to the provisions of Section 5 of this Rule.
SECTION 7. Maternity leave benefits. — Every employer shall grant to a pregnant woman employee who has rendered an aggregate service of at least six (6) months for the last twelve (12) months immediately preceding the expected date of delivery, or the complete abortion or miscarriage, maternity leave of at least two (2) weeks before and four (4) weeks after the delivery, miscarriage or abortion, with full pay based on her regular or average weekly wages.
SECTION 8. Accreditation of leave credits. — Where the pregnant woman employee fails to avail of the two-week pre-delivery leave, or any portion thereof, the same shall be added to her post-delivery leave with pay.
SECTION 9. Payment of extended maternity leave. — When so requested by the woman employee, the extension of her maternity leave beyond the four-week post-delivery leave shall be paid by the employer from her unused vacation and/or sick leave credits, if any, or allowed without pay in the absence of such leave credits, where the extended leave is due to illness medically certified to arise out of her pregnancy, delivery, complete abortion or miscarriage which renders her unfit for work.
SECTION 10. Limitation on leave benefits. — The maternity benefits provided herein shall be paid by an employer only for the first four (4) deliveries, miscarriages, and/or complete abortions of the employee from March 13, 1973, regardless of the number of employees and deliveries, complete abortions or miscarriages the woman employee had before said date. For purposes of determining the entitlement of a woman employee to the maternity leave benefits as delimited herein, the total number of her deliveries, complete abortions, or miscarriages after said date shall be considered regardless of the identity or number of employers she has had at the time of such determination, provided that she enjoyed the minimum benefits therefor as provided in these regulations.
SECTION 11. Family planning services. — Employers who habitually employ more than two hundred (200) workers in any locality shall provide free family-planning services to their employees and their spouses which shall include but not limited to, the application or use of contraceptives.
Subject to the approval of the Secretary of Labor and Employment, the Bureau of Women and Young Workers shall, within thirty (30) days from the effective date of these Rules, prescribe the minimum requirements of family planning services to be given by employers to their employees.
SECTION 12. Relation to agreements. — Nothing herein shall prevent the employer and his employees or their representatives from entering into any agreement with terms more favorable to the employees than those provided herein, or be used to diminish any benefit granted to the employees under existing laws, agreements, and voluntary employer practices.
SECTION 13. Prohibited acts. — It shall be unlawful for any employer:
(a) To discharge any woman employed by him for the purpose of preventing such woman from enjoying the maternity leave, facilities and other benefits provided under the Code;
(b) To discharge such woman employee on account of her pregnancy, or while on leave or in confinement due to her pregnancy;
(c) To discharge or refuse the admission of such woman upon returning to her work for fear that she may be pregnant;
(d) To discharge any woman or child or any other employee for having filed a complaint or having testified or being about to testify under the Code; and
(e) To require as a condition for a continuation of employment that a woman employee shall not get married or to stipulate expressly or tacitly that upon getting married, a woman employee shall be deemed resigned or separated, or to actually dismiss, discharge, discriminate or otherwise prejudice a woman employee merely by reason of her marriage.
SECTION 14. Facilities for woman employees. — Subject to the approval of the Secretary of Labor and Employment, the Bureau of Women and Young Workers shall, within thirty (30) days from the effective date of these Rules, determine in an appropriate issuance the work situations for which the facilities enumerated in Article 131 of the Code shall be provided, as well as the appropriate minimum age and other standards for retirement or termination of employment in special occupations in which women are employed.
