Probationary Employees: Probation Period and Standards. Philippine Labor Law is strict on the rules of probationary employment. Non-compliance thereof will result in regular employment.

1. Probationary Employees
Probation Period and Standards
29 October 2016

2. Probationary Employee
IRR of the Labor Code: “There is probationary employment where the
employee, upon his engagement, is made to undergo a trial period
during which the employer determines his fitness to qualify for regular
employment, based on reasonable standards made known to him at the
time of engagement.”
Citation: Sec. 6, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

3. Rules to Probationary Employment
1. Where the work for which the employee has been engaged is
learnable or apprenticeable in accordance with the standards prescribed
by [now TESDA], the period of probationary employment shall be
limited to the authorized learnership or apprenticeship period,
whichever is applicable.
Citation: Sec. 6, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

4. Rules to Probationary Employment
2. Where the work is neither learnable nor apprenticeable, the period of
probationary employment shall not exceed six months reckoned from
the date the employee actually started working.
Important: Academic teaching personnel in private schools have a longer
probationary period.
• Basic education: not more than 3 years
• Higher education: not more than 6 consecutive semesters or 9 consecutive
trimesters of satisfactory service
Citation: Sec. 6, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code;
2010 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools in Basic Education (DEPED); 2008 Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education (CHED)

5. Rules to Probationary Employment
3. The services of an employee who has been engaged on probationary
basis may be terminated only for a just or authorized cause, when he
fails to qualify as a regular employee in accordance with reasonable
standards prescribed by the employer.
Citation: Sec. 6, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

6. Rules to Probationary Employment
4. In all cases of probationary employment, the employer shall make
known to the employee the standards under which he will qualify as a
regular employee at the time of his engagement. Where no standards
are made known to the employee at that time, he shall be deemed a
regular employee.
Citation: Sec. 6, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

7. Rules to Probationary Employment
4. In all cases of probationary employment, the employer shall make
known to the employee the standards under which he will qualify as a
regular employee at the time of his engagement. Where no standards
are made known to the employee at that time, he shall be deemed a
regular employee.
Citation: Sec. 6, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

8. Case Law
Abbott Laboratories, Philippines v. Alcaraz (2013)
• The probationary employee (manager) who did not qualify filed a complaint claiming
that he was never informed of the standards for the position and thus he was a
regular.
HELD: The employee was a probationary.
• “… the employer is made to comply with two (2) requirements when dealing with a
probationary employee: first, the employer must communicate the regularization
standards to the probationary employee; and second, the employer must make such
communication at the time of the probationary employee’s engagement. If the
employer fails to comply with either, the employee is deemed as a regular and not a
probationary employee.”
• How employer’s expectations were communicated: job ad with work description,
offer sheet, employment contract, company orientation, etc.
Citation: Sec. 6, Rule I, Book VI, Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code; cf. Article 294, Labor Code

9. For more information:
Labor Law Compliance
Best Practices for Human Resource
www.laborlaw.ph
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