Fixed-Term Employees

Fixed-Term Employees: Agreed Period of Employment. While the Philippine Labor Code does not enlist fixed-term employment, it has been recognized via jurisprudence in the case of Brent School v. Zamora.

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Fixed-Term Employees
Agreed Period of Employment

2. Fixed-Term Employees
The employer and the employee agrees to a fixed-term or duration
of the employment
Citation: Brent School, Inc., v. Zamora, G.R. No. L-48494, 05 February 1990

3. Limitations to Fixed-Term Employment
Two-fold criteria for validity: "... where a fixed period of employment
was agreed upon knowingly and voluntarily by the parties, without
any force, duress or improper pressure being brought to bear upon the
employee and absent any other circumstances vitiating his consent, or
where it satisfactorily appears that the employer and employee dealt
with each other on more or less equal terms with no moral dominance
whatever being exercised by the former over the latter…”
Important: If the above criteria are not met, the fixed-term employee is
deemed a regular employee.
Citation: 2016 Handbook on Statutory Monetary Benefits by DOLE-BWC

4. Case Law
Brent School, Inc. v. Alegre (1990):
• The employee (athletic director) claimed that he was a regu-
lar employee despite his having signed a 5-year employment
contract.
HELD: The complainant was a fixed-term employee.
• “… [the Civil Code] has always recognized, and continues to
recognize, the
validity and propriety of contracts and obligations with a fixed
or definite
Citation: Brent School, Inc., v. Zamora, G.R. No. L-48494, 05 February 1990

5. Case Law
Dumpit-Murillo v. Associated Broadcasted Company (2007):
• The employee (athletic director) claimed that he was a regular employee despite his having
signed
a 5-year employment contract.
HELD: The fixed-termemployee was deemed a regular.
• “… it does not appear that the employer and employee dealt with each other on equal terms.
Understandably, the [employee] could not object to the terms of her employment contract because
she did not want to lose the job that she loved and the workplace that she had grown accustomed
to, which is exactly what happened when she finally manifested her intention to negotiate.”
• “Being one of the numerous newscasters/broadcasters of ABC and desiring to keep her job as
a broadcasting practitioner, [the employee] was left with no choice but to affix her signature of
conformity on each renewal of her contract as already prepared by [the employers]; otherwise,
[they] would have simply refused to renew her contract. Patently, the [employee] occupied a posi-
tion of weakness vis-à-vis the employer. Moreover, [the employer’s] practice of repeatedly extend-
ing [the employee’s] 3-month contract for four years is a circumvention of the acquisition of regular
status. Hence, there was no valid fixed-term employment between [them].
Citation: Dumpit-Murillo v. Associated Broadcasting Company, G.R. No. 164652, 08 June 2007

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