Deferment of Holiday Pay during Community Quarantine

There are a number of holidays that fell or will fall within the community quarantine period. These holidays are the Araw ng Kagitingan (9 April 2020), Maundy Thursday (9 April 2020), Good Friday (10 April 2020), Black Saturday (11 April 2020), Labor Day (1 May 2020) and Eid’l Fitr or Ramadhan (24 May 2020). The next scheduled under Proclamation No. 845 is Independence Day (12 June 2020), which will most likely be covered by community quarantine. 

Holiday pay in the Philippines is computed at 100% of the pay, even if unworked, for monthly-paid employees (no-work, no-pay for daily-paid employees). Holiday pay is  200% if worked, for both monthly-paid and daily-paid employees. April 9 is a rare double holiday, which means holiday pay is 300%. [See Labor Advisory Nos. 13, 15 and 20]

Assuming an employee is entitled to holiday pay, the payment is deferred “in view of the existence of a national emergency arising from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation. Payment shall be made when the present emergency situation has been abated and the normal operations of the establishment is in place.” In other words, the deferment will last, at the earliest, when the community quarantine is lifted. Note that the Labor Advisories also mention that deferment may last until the establishment is in normal operation.

Establishments that have totally closed or ceased operations are exempted from the payment of holiday pay.

P&L Law

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