Economic realities test: The proper test in determining the existence of an employer-employee relationship

Date of Publication

2014

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Juris Doctor

Subject Categories

Labor and Employment Law | Law

College

College of Law

Department/Unit

Law

Defense Panel Chair

Domingo T. Añonuevo

Defense Panel Member

Cecilio D. Duka

Vyva Victoria M. Aguirre

Pura Ferrer-Calleja

Abstract/Summary

It has already been said that determining the existence or non-existence of an employment relationship is problematic.' With the help of their lawyers, businessmen tried to negate the existence of an employer-employee relationship in their wage, termination, unionism, social security, and workmen's compensation. complexities and repercussions of this relationship require that its analysis should not be mechanical. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of the Philippines has constantly applied the four-fold test to determine if an employer-employee relationship exists. In the four- fold test, the control test is the most essential factor in determining the existence of an employment relationship. However, the Supreme Court also took into account, together with the control test, "the existing economic conditions prevailing between the parties."

It must be noted that the same Court has ruled that the legal policy is "to apply the Labor Code to a greater number of employees"" to enable them to "avail of the benefits accorded to them by law, in line with the constitutional mandate giving maximum aid and protection to labor, promoting their welfare and reaffirming it as a primary social economic force in furtherance of social justice and national development."8 It is submitted that it is the "economic realities test" that should be consistently used in resolving cases wherein the employment relationship between a putative employer and putative employee is in issue, in accord with Section 3, Article XIlI of the 1987 Constitution which provides for the State's task to give full protection to labor; promote full employment; guarantee the rights to self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiations, security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living wage of all workers, among many others. The obiective of this thesis is to recommend that laws and procedural rules should be adopted incorporating the "economic realities test" in order to broaden the scope of workers protected under Philippine labor laws, and that the "control test" should already be abandoned for policy considerations.

Abstract Format

html

Note

Abstract only

Language

English

Format

Print

Keywords

Labor laws and legislation—Philippines; Industrial relations—Philippines

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8-4-2025

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