The Labor Code of the Philippines is Presidential Decree No. 442, the statute that governs private-sector employment in the Philippines. It is organised into a Preliminary Title and seven Books, running from Article 1 to Article 317: pre-employment and recruitment, human resources development, conditions of employment, health and safety, labor relations, post-employment, and transitory provisions. This page maps all seven — what each Book covers, its article range, and the LaborCode.ph guide for each rule.
Direct Answer
The Labor Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended) contains seven Books preceded by a Preliminary Title.[1] Book One covers pre-employment and recruitment. Book Two covers human resources development, including apprentices and learners. Book Three covers conditions of employment — hours of work, rest days, holidays, leave and wages. Book Four covers health, safety and social welfare benefits. Book Five covers labor relations, unions and the NLRC. Book Six covers post-employment — termination and retirement. Book Seven covers penal, transitory and final provisions, including prescription of claims.
Article numbers were officially renumbered by the Department of Labor and Employment in 2015–2016, so the same provision carries two numbers depending on which source you are reading.[2] That is explained below before the book listing.
Read This First: The Two Numbering Systems
DOLE renumbered the Labor Code through Department Advisory No. 01, series of 2015, to account for provisions repealed and inserted by later statutes.[2] The consequence is practical: a Supreme Court decision from 2010 and a DOLE advisory from 2020 can cite the same rule under different article numbers.
The clearest example is the just-cause ground for dismissal. It is Article 297 today and was Article 282 before renumbering. Contracts, company handbooks and older case digests still say 282.
Throughout this library we lead with the current number and give the original in brackets — “Article 297 [282]” — so a reference works whichever source you arrived from. If you are holding an older document, our guide to what Article 282 actually covers walks through the old-to-new mapping.
The Seven Books at a Glance
| Book | Articles | Subject | Full text on LaborCode.ph |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary Title | 1–11 | Basic policy, construction in favor of labor, applicability | Planned |
| Book One | 12–42 | Pre-Employment: recruitment, placement, non-resident aliens | Live |
| Book Two | 43–81 | Human Resources Development: apprentices, learners, workers with disability | Live |
| Book Three | 82–161 | Conditions of Employment: hours, rest, holidays, leave, wages | Live |
| Book Four | 162–217 | Health, Safety and Social Welfare Benefits | Live |
| Book Five | 218–292 | Labor Relations: unions, CBAs, strikes, the NLRC | Live |
| Book Six | 293–302 | Post-Employment: termination and retirement | Live |
| Book Seven | 303–317 | Transitory and Final Provisions: penalties, prescription | Live |
All seven Books now have a full-text page. Each reproduces the statutory text from the Department of Labor and Employment’s official 2022 renumbered edition, with a per-article anchor, the current number leading and the original in brackets where the article was renumbered, and a status note wherever a provision has been amended, repealed or overtaken by a later statute. The practical guides listed under each Book cover the same articles in plain language. Nothing below is a placeholder link.
Preliminary Title — Articles 1 to 11
The opening articles state the Code’s name and effectivity, declare basic labor policy, and set the rule of construction that matters most in practice: doubts in the implementation and interpretation of the Code, including its implementing rules, are resolved in favor of labor. Articles 7 to 11 deal with the emancipation of tenant-farmers and are largely of historical interest today.
Guides covering these principles:
- What Is Philippine Labor Law? A Complete Overview
- Labor as a primary social economic force — the constitutional policy behind the Code
Book One — Pre-Employment (Articles 12 to 42)
Book One governs everything that happens before an employment relationship exists. It sets state policy on recruitment and placement (Articles 12–24), regulates recruitment activities and licensing (25–35), covers illegal recruitment and related prohibitions (36–39), and ends with the rules on employment of non-resident aliens and alien employment permits (40–42).
This is the Book that governs overseas deployment at the front end, though much of the modern OFW framework now sits in separate statutes administered by the Department of Migrant Workers.
Guides covering these articles:
- OFW Rights in the Philippines: Claims, Agencies and Where to File
- Freelancer and Gig Worker Rights: Employee or Contractor?
- Employment contract · the four-fold test
Book Two — Human Resources Development (Articles 43 to 81)
Full text available. Book Two covers the national manpower development programme (Articles 43–56), apprenticeship agreements (57–72), learners (73–77), and the employment of workers with disability (78–81). In practice its most-asked question is the difference between an apprentice, a learner, an intern and a regular employee — and what each is entitled to be paid.
- Book Two — Human Resources Development, Articles 43 to 81 (verbatim, with the TESDA Act mapping for Title I and the RA 7277 and RA 9231 corrections marked)
⚠ Most of Book Two no longer states the governing rule. Title I is impliedly inoperative, and R.A. No. 12063 (2024), the EBET Framework Act, expressly repealed the apprenticeship and learners chapters (Articles 57–77). Enterprise-based training is now administered by TESDA under that Act. The Book Two page sets out what replaced them.
Guides covering these articles:
- Apprentice · Internship
- Probationary Employment: 6-month rules and regularization — the boundary these arrangements are most often confused with
Book Three — Conditions of Employment (Articles 82 to 161)
Full text available. Book Three is the largest and most-searched part of the Code. It sets working time, rest, leave and wage standards, and it is where most everyday pay disputes are decided.
- Book Three — chapter map and amendment status
- Title I — Working Conditions and Rest Periods, Articles 82 to 96 (verbatim)
- Title II — Wages, Articles 97 to 129 (verbatim)
- Title III — Special Groups of Employees, Articles 130 to 161 (verbatim)
| Chapter | Articles | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Hours of Work | 82–90 | Normal hours, meal periods, night shift differential, overtime |
| Weekly Rest Periods | 91–93 | Rest day, rest-day work, premium pay |
| Holidays and Service Incentive Leave | 94–96 | Holiday pay, five-day SIL, service charges |
| Wages | 97–129 | Definition of wage, minimum wage, payment of wages, deductions, prohibitions |
| Special Groups | 130–161 | Women, minors, kasambahay, homeworkers, night workers |
Guides covering these articles:
- Hours: The 8-hour day, 12-hour shifts and overtime · DOLE rules on overtime pay · Night shift differential · Undertime and the no-offset rule · Who qualifies as field personnel
- Rest and holidays: Rest day rules · Premium pay · Holiday pay: regular vs special days · Holiday calendar and computation
- Leave: Service incentive leave (Article 95) · Leave benefits overview · Leave without pay
- Wages: What counts as a wage (Article 97) · Minimum wage · Paid below minimum wage: what to do · Wage payment rules · Unauthorized salary deductions · Diminution of benefits (Article 100) · Labor-only contracting (Articles 106–109)
- Special groups: Kasambahay rights
A common misplacement: 13th month pay is not a Labor Code article. It comes from Presidential Decree No. 851, a separate law — see 13th month pay.
Book Four — Health, Safety and Social Welfare Benefits (Articles 162 to 217)
Full text available. Book Four covers medical and dental services required of employers (Articles 162–167), occupational safety and health (168–171), the Employees’ Compensation programme and State Insurance Fund for work-related injury, illness and death (172–215), Medicare (216), and adult education (217).
- Book Four — Health, Safety and Social Welfare Benefits, Articles 162 to 217 (chapter map, with Titles I, III and IV verbatim)
- Title II — Employees’ Compensation and State Insurance Fund, Articles 172 to 215 (verbatim, with every superseded peso figure flagged)
Occupational safety was substantially strengthened outside the Code by Republic Act No. 11058 and its implementing rules, which now carry the operative employer duties and penalties.
Guides covering these articles and their adjacent statutes:
- RA 11058: worker rights and employer duties on safety · Occupational safety and health
- SSS · PhilHealth · Pag-IBIG — note these run under their own charters, not under Book Four
- Maternity leave and the SSS benefit · Paternity leave (RA 8187)
Book Five — Labor Relations (Articles 218 to 292)
Full text available. Book Five governs the collective side of employment and the machinery that resolves disputes. It establishes the National Labor Relations Commission (Articles 220–231) and the Bureau of Labor Relations (232–239), covers union registration (240–249) and membership rights (250–257), defines unfair labor practices (258–260), governs collective bargaining (261–272) and grievance and voluntary arbitration (273–277), and regulates strikes and lockouts (278–287).
- Book Five — Labor Relations, Articles 218 to 292 (Title map, renumbering, and Title I verbatim)
- Titles II–III — the NLRC and the Bureau of Labor Relations, Articles 220 to 239 (verbatim)
- Titles IV–V — Labor Organizations and Coverage, Articles 240 to 257 (verbatim)
- Titles VI–VII-A — Unfair Labor Practices, Collective Bargaining and Voluntary Arbitration, Articles 258 to 277 (verbatim)
- Titles VIII–IX — Strikes, Lockouts and Special Provisions, Articles 278 to 292 (verbatim)
Guides covering these articles:
- Unions and bargaining: Union rights: organizing, CBAs and strike procedure · Labor union · Collective bargaining agreement · Union security clause · Strike
- Forums and procedure: DOLE or NLRC: where to file · Which claims go directly to the NLRC · The Labor Arbiter, the decision and the appeal bond · NLRC eFiling
- Conciliation: How to file SEnA · When SEnA fails · Conciliation
Book Six — Post-Employment (Articles 293 to 302)
Full text available. Book Six governs how an employment relationship lawfully ends. Title I covers termination of employment (Articles 293–301): coverage, security of tenure, regular and casual employment, probationary employment, just causes, authorized causes, disease, resignation, and suspension of operations. Title II covers retirement from the service (Article 302), with Article 302-A added for racehorse jockeys.
- Book Six — full verbatim text, Articles 293 to 302 with DOLE’s own footnotes and per-article anchors
- Book 6 Explained — the practical walkthrough: just cause versus authorized cause, the twin-notice procedure, separation pay and retirement pay formulas
Key guides: Security of tenure · Article 295: who is a regular employee · Just cause · Authorized cause · Twin-notice rule · Separation pay · Retirement pay · Illegal dismissal: how to file
Book Seven — Transitory and Final Provisions (Articles 303 to 317)
Book Seven carries the penal provisions for Code violations (Articles 303–304), the rules on prescription of offenses and money claims (305–307), and transitory and final provisions (308–317). Article 306 [291] is the one most often needed in practice: money claims arising from employer-employee relations generally prescribe in three years from the time the cause of action accrued. The prescriptive period for an illegal dismissal action is set separately by jurisprudence applying the Civil Code — four years, under Article 1146.
- Book Seven — full verbatim text, Articles 303 to 317
- Filing deadlines at a glance — money claims, offences, unfair labor practice and illegal dismissal side by side
Guides covering these articles:
- Prescription in Philippine labor law
- Illegal dismissal: how to file a case — where the deadline matters most
How to Use This Library
Three routes into the same material, depending on what you already know:
- You have an article number. Use the table above to find its Book, then open that Book’s page or the guide listed for that chapter.
- You have a situation, not a citation. Start from Topics or, if the question is job-specific, By Job.
- You have a term you do not recognise. The Philippine Labor Law Glossary defines it and links to the guide that covers it in depth.
Book pages reproduce the statutory text and link out to the guide for each provision. Guides do the practical work: whether the rule applies, what evidence matters, how the computation runs, and what to do next.
Sources and Legal Citations
- Labor Code of the Philippines, Presidential Decree No. 442 (1 May 1974), as amended. Published by DOLE at dole.gov.ph; the same official 2022 renumbered edition is mirrored as a PDF by the International Labour Organization; original 1974 text at lawphil.net. Supports: the seven-Book structure, the Preliminary Title, and every article range stated on this page. Status: current, as amended. Accessed 1 September 2026.
- Department of Labor and Employment, Department Advisory No. 01, series of 2015, Renumbering of the Labor Code of the Philippines, as Amended. Supports: the 2015–2016 official renumbering and the resulting dual numbering of every affected article. Classification: administrative issuance. Status: current; official copy hosted at dole.gov.ph. Verification note: the DOLE-hosted document blocked automated retrieval on the recheck date; the renumbering it effects is reflected in the official renumbered edition cited above.
Sources rechecked as of: September 1, 2026
Last materially reviewed: September 1, 2026
Educational content, not legal advice. This page is a structural index to the Labor Code of the Philippines for general educational and legal-information purposes. It is not legal advice and does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Labor disputes turn on specific facts, evidence, and current law. LaborCode.ph is independent and is not a government website, tribunal, or law firm. For advice on an actual situation, consult a Philippine labor lawyer, DOLE, or the NLRC.