Below is a one-stop, practitioner-level guide to holiday-pay liability when an employee is absent on the work-day immediately before a Philippine holiday. Citations point either to the Labor Code’s Implementing Rules (IRR), the 2024 DOLE Handbook on Workers’ Statutory Monetary Benefits (“2024 Handbook”), or leading commentaries.
1. Statutory foundations
| Source | Key text |
|---|---|
| Labor Code, Art. 94 – “Every worker shall be paid his regular daily wage during regular holidays….” | (quoted in most commentaries) |
| Book III, Rule IV, Secs. 4–6 & 10 IRR – set the pay multipliers and the “absence-before-holiday” and “successive holidays” rules. (labor3.blogspot.com) | |
| 2024 Handbook, pp. 16-19 – integrates the IRR plus recent issuances in one table. (Scribd) |
2. Which holidays are covered?
- Regular holidays (now twelve a year, e.g., 1 May, 25 Dec.) attract the 100 %/200 % rules. (Scribd)
- Special non-working days follow a “no-work, no-pay” baseline unless company policy says otherwise; the absence-before-holiday rule does not apply because entitlement exists only if work is actually rendered.
- Double holidays (two regular holidays on the same calendar day) trigger the 300 % rate for work, 200 % if unworked. (Scribd)
3. Coverage and exclusions
Employees not entitled to statutory holiday pay include: government personnel, domestic helpers, managerial staff, field personnel, and workers in retail / service firms with < 10 employees. Full list in Sec. 1, Rule IV IRR. (labor3.blogspot.com)
4. The “absence-before-holiday” qualifier (Sec. 6 [a] IRR)
| Situation on the work-day immediately before the regular holiday | Entitlement if employee does not work on the holiday |
|---|---|
| Present OR on leave with pay | 100 % of the daily wage |
| Absent without pay | No holiday pay |
| Pre-holiday day is already a scheduled rest/non-work day and employee worked on the last work-day before it | Holiday pay still due (deemed not on leave) |
Practical tip: treat approved VL/SL/parental leave as leave with pay; an employee on those leaves keeps the benefit.
5. If the employee actually works on the holiday
Work always trumps the disqualification. The worker earns the holiday premium (200 % of wage for the first 8 hours) whether or not he/she was absent the day before; what is lost is only the additional 100 % for an unworked regular holiday. (RESPICIO & CO.)
6. “Successive holiday” rule (Holy Thursday + Good Friday, etc.)
“An employee may not be paid for both holidays if he absents himself on the day immediately preceding the first holiday, unless he works on that first holiday.” – Sec. 10, Rule IV IRR. (labor3.blogspot.com, Scribd)
Practically, an absence on Holy-Wednesday (unpaid) means no pay for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday—unless the employee reports on Thursday, which reinstates entitlement for Friday. Alburo Law’s HR note reaches the same conclusion. (Al buro Law Offices)
7. “Qualifying-day” myths (presence after the holiday)
Older company manuals still cite the “last working day before and after” test. DOLE quietly dropped the post-holiday requirement in 1987; only the day before the holiday remains in the IRR. Private-sector guides that resurrect the two-day test (e.g., some blog posts) should be read as company-policy-based supplements, not statutory mandates. (Respicio & Co.)
8. Computing pay in common scenarios
| Scenario | Daily-paid worker | Monthly-paid worker* |
|---|---|---|
| Absent (unpaid) on 30 Apr → didn’t work 1 May | No holiday pay | Salary already deemed to include all regular holidays |
| Absent 30 Apr but on approved paid sick leave | 100 % of wage | Covered |
| Absent 30 Apr (unpaid) but works on 1 May | 200 % wage for first 8 h (no additional 100 %) | 200 % over and above his fixed salary |
*Monthly-paid employees are considered paid for all regular holidays by default. – 2024 Handbook, “Monthly-Paid vs Daily-Paid” table. (Scribd)
9. Double regular holidays (e.g., 25 Dec. + Rizal Day on 30 Dec.)
- Unworked: 200 % of wage (not 100 %) per IRR.
- Worked: 300 % for first 8 h; +30 % of hourly rate beyond 8 h. (Scribd)
Absence on 24 Dec. again forfeits the 200 % for the 25 Dec. holiday only.
10. Enforcement and remedies
- Holiday-pay underpayments constitute Labor Standards violations; employees may file a money claim (Art. 128 or Art. 129 jurisdiction) or raise it in a pending NLRC illegal-dismissal suit.
- Deliberate non-payment can expose officers to criminal sanctions under Art. 303.
- Prescriptive period: 3 years from accrual of each unpaid holiday pay.
11. Best-practice checklist for HR
- Run an auto-flag report of unpaid absences that fall immediately before regular holidays.
- Require leave applications (or a return-to-work form) to convert an otherwise unpaid absence into leave with pay when documentation exists.
- Document work attendance on the holiday separately; payroll must split the “200 % for hours worked” from any “100 % unworked” component to avoid disputes.
- Communicate the successive-holiday rule early in Holy Week and year-end memos to curb absenteeism.
- Update outdated manuals that still state the two-day qualifying rule.
Take-away
The only statutory qualifying day is the work-day immediately before a regular holiday—and even that disqualification vanishes if the employee is on paid leave, on rest-day status, or actually works on the holiday itself. Mastering this single pivot point keeps Philippine payrolls compliant and prevents costly money-claims downstream.