What to check in an employment contract, including the actual role, probationary standards, fixed-term arrangements, statutory rights and implementation.
Direct answer
Start with the work the employee will actually perform and the legal classification it supports. Clear wording cannot waive statutory rights or correct an arrangement contradicted by the facts.
Choose a defensible classification
| Arrangement | Question for the employer |
|---|---|
| Regular | Is the work usually necessary or desirable in the employer’s business, or has a casual employee served at least one year with respect to the activity? |
| Probationary | Were reasonable regularization standards made known at engagement, subject to the narrow recognized exceptions? |
| Project | Was the specific project or undertaking and its duration or scope identified at engagement? |
| Seasonal | Does the work and engagement genuinely follow the applicable seasonal pattern? |
| Casual | Is the work outside the Code’s regular, project and seasonal tests, and has the employee completed one year of service with respect to that activity? |
| Fixed term | Can the employer prove knowing and voluntary agreement, more-or-less equal bargaining terms and no circumvention of security of tenure? |
Fixed-term work is not confined to project and seasonal employment. Supreme Court decisions recognize qualifying arrangements but scrutinize whether the term was imposed to defeat security of tenure; the employer bears the evidentiary risk. Probation is generally limited to six months, subject to recognized exceptions and applicable rules. Calendar the actual employment dates rather than relying on a casual “180 days” template.
Draft and communicate the real operating arrangements
Set out the duties, reporting line, workplace, pay, hours, benefits, confidentiality and return of company property. Include probationary standards where applicable and check the terms against payroll and policy. Calling a benefit discretionary does not remove an existing statutory, contractual or protected benefit obligation.
Illustrative communicated standard
For a probationary payroll analyst, a signed offer and attached role sheet might state that regularization depends on delivering weekly reconciliations by the stated cut-off, keeping discrepancies within the documented tolerance, correcting exceptions by the next business day, and following approval and confidentiality controls, all assessed under an attached rubric delivered at engagement. The criteria must be reasonable, adapted to the actual role and genuinely used; this example is not a universal template.
Separate employment, IP, restriction and data terms
These clauses may appear in one contract, but they do not follow one legal test.
| Clause family | Separate control to check |
|---|---|
| Core employment terms | Match duties, status, pay, hours, benefits and policies to the actual work and non-waivable labor standards. |
| Copyright and inventions | Apply the Intellectual Property Code’s separate rules for works within regular duties and employee inventions, then state any lawful agreement clearly. |
| Post-employment restrictions | Identify the legitimate interest and assess the actual work, information, area, duration and effect on livelihood. A one- or two-year period or added payment does not make a restriction automatically enforceable. |
| Employee personal data | Use a privacy notice and processing framework that identifies purpose and lawful basis, limits access and retention, provides appropriate security, and does not treat a blanket consent clause as the whole compliance program. |
Under Section 178.3 of the Intellectual Property Code, copyright in work created during employment turns in part on whether creation was within the employee’s regularly assigned duties, subject to an agreement to the contrary. Employee inventions follow a related but distinct statutory allocation. Work email addresses, employee numbers and other work-related identifiers may still be personal information under the Data Privacy Act.
A dispute clause cannot choose any forum
Jurisdiction follows law and the nature of the claim. Not every employment-related dispute belongs to the NLRC: collective-agreement interpretation, corporate-office disputes and other claims may follow different routes. Arbitration or venue language cannot simply remove mandatory labor protections.
Implement what the contract promises
Give the employee the relevant standards and policies, and keep proof of communication. Update the documents when the work or arrangement changes. If dismissal is being considered, assess the ground and process separately; a signed contract does not make the termination clause self-executing.
Related assistance
For the next step, see employment documentation, termination decision review. Engagement depends on conflict checking and an agreed scope.
Sources and further reading
- Labor Code, Book VI: Articles 295 and 296
- Reyes v. Samsung Electronics Philippines: communicating probationary standards
- Ditiangkin v. Lazada E-Services Philippines: fixed-term proof and equal terms
- Intellectual Property Code: employee works and inventions
- Data Privacy Act and processing principles
- NPC Advisory Opinion No. 2017-036: work-related personal data
- Civil Code: contractual limits
Important
This article provides general information, not advice on a particular matter. The applicable law, documents, procedural events and facts must be checked. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Topics covered:
employment contractlabor lawprobationary employmentregularizationNLRCDOLEPhilippinesHR