A seasonal employment contract is an employment arrangement between an employer and a seasonal employee wherein the latter has been engaged to render work during a season
1. Summary
⦁ A seasonal employment contract is an employment arrangement between an employer and a seasonal employee wherein the latter has been engaged to render work during a season
⦁ The employer must be justified in hiring additional help via seasonal employees.
⦁ Seasonal employee should work during the specified season only.
⦁ Regular seasonal employees are those who are regularly hired for a season.
⦁ Non-compliance of the requirements may result in the employee being reclassified as a regular employee.
2. Concept
A seasonal employment contract is an employment arrangement between an employer and a seasonal employee.
A seasonal employee is one who has been engaged to render work during a season, as defined under the Labor Code. (Article 295, Labor Code; cf. Section 5, Rule I, Book VII, Omnibus Rules & Regulations of the Labor Code)
“Seasonal employment operates much in the same way as project employment, albeit it involves work or service that is seasonal in nature or lasting for the duration of the season. As with project employment, although the seasonal employment arrangement involves work that is seasonal or periodic in nature, the employment itself is not automatically considered seasonal so as to prevent the employee from attaining regular status.” (Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo, G.R. No. 186439, 15 January 2019.)
3. Requirements
“To exclude the asserted ‘seasonal’ employee from those classified as regular employees, the employer must show that: (1) the employee must be performing work or services that are seasonal in nature; and (2) he had been employed for the duration of the season. Hence, when the ‘seasonal’ workers are continuously and repeatedly hired to perform the same tasks or activities for several seasons or even after the cessation of the season, this length of time may likewise serve as badge of regular employment.” (Ibid.)
The following are the requirements:
1) The employee must be performing work or services that are seasonal in nature; and,
2) He had been employed for the duration of the season.
4. Test for seasonal employment
The principal test is the existence of the season.
a. Season
A season is a period inside a calendar year.
Thus, by definition, a season cannot extend beyond a year.
The season refers to that period when the employer is justified in hiring additional help via seasonal employees due to increase of work, demand, or analogous thereto. The classic example is that of the harvest season in farms or fish pens when the employer may require additional help to take on the increase of the work.
However, there are also seasons in other businesses aside from agriculture and fishery. For instance, restaurants require additional help during the graduation season or the holidays due to increase of work and demand resulting from celebrations and gatherings.
Accordingly, the season herein refers to a business season. It thus not refer to seasons of the year, such as rainy seasons in the Philippines.
“… the ‘activity of catching fish is a continuous process and could hardly be considered as seasonal in nature.’ (Poseidon Fishing/Terry De Jesus v. NLRC, Estoquia, G.R. No. 168052, 20 February 2006)
b. Season requires a start and an end
A season should have a start and an end.
It is insufficient to simply say that the business has a graduations season, without specifying the starting and end date. The season should have a specified beginning and end. Thus, a graduation season may begin on March 1 and end on May 31, or the holiday season may begin on December 1 and end on January 5.
The start and end date of the season should be clearly stated in the seasonal employment contract.
c. Employer proves existence of season
When the existence of the season is challenged, the burden of proof is on the employer.
The season may be proven through various documentation such as previous year’s sales, orders, requests, workload, transactions, and similar thereto. The objective here is for the employer to prove that it was justified in hiring seasonal employees due to increase in work and/or demands of the business.
5. Regular seasonal employee
When an employee is regularly hired for work on a season, such as farm help during harvest seasons, the said employee is a regular seasonal employee.
Meaning, the employee has the right to demand and the employer is required to allow the employee to resume work when the harvest season comes. Otherwise, if the employer refuses, then it may be liable for illegal dismissal.
Regular seasonal employment requires at least two (2) years or seasons to make a seasonal employee into a regular seasonal employee.
“In fact, even though denominated as ‘seasonal workers,’ if these workers are called to work from time to time and are only temporarily laid off during the off-season, the law does not consider them separated from the service during the off-season period. The law simply considers these seasonal workers on leave until re-employed.” (Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation v. Acibo, supra.)
6. Non-compliance with requirements
If any of the above requirements for not complied, the employee may be reclassified as a regular employee.
These may include:
1) Non-existence of a season or the employer fails to justify it;
2) Employees were required or allowed to work beyond the season; or,
3) Regular seasonal employees who were not allowed to resume work during a season.
If the employee is reclassified as a regular employee, then the employer may be held liable for illegal dismissal if the employee has been let go without due process and/or just cause.
7. Burden of proof on the employer
When the validity of the employment arrangement is challenged, the burden of proof is on the employer.
8. When in doubt, interpreted in favor of the employee
“In case of doubt, all labor legislation and all labor contracts shall be construed in favor of the safety and decent living for the laborer.” (Article 1702, Civil Code)
References
⦁ Book VI, Presidential Decree No. 442, a.k.a. Labor Code of the Philippines
