Philippine Holidays
March 13 at 12:02 pm in Employer Tips, Philippines by Honey Amabelle D. Young (Admin) 25 Comments »
If you’re a foreign employer and have outsourced your work to a Filipino freelancer, you might want to know what are the non-working holidays in the Philippines. This is not to say that you must necessarily follow these holidays and give your employees time off during these days, but, if and when your employee asks for time off during these times, you won’t be caught off guard.
So, here is a list of Philippine Holidays and the dates they fall on:
A. Regular Holidays
New Year’s Day - January 1
Holy Week – Since the Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, majority of Filipinos observe this holiday. It starts with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday. Of the entire week, only Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are non-working holidays. The date for this Catholic holiday is not fixed. It usually falls between the third week of March to the second week of April. The exact date is different every year and is dictated by the Vatican. The date will be the same all over the world, though.
Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) – April 9 ; This day commemorates the Bataan Death March in 1942 of the World War II.
Labor Day – May 1
Independence Day – June 12 ; This commemorates the day the Philippines became a Republic.
National Heroes Day – August 30 ; This commemorates the Cry of Pugad Lawin by Filipino Revolutionary forces called the Katipunan led by its leader, Andres Bonifacio.
Bonifacio Day – November 30 ; This commemorates the birth date of one of the country’s heroes, Andres Bonifacio.
Christmas Day – December 25
Rizal Day – December 30 ; This commemorates the day when the Philippines’ national hero, Jose Rizal, died for the honor of the country.
B. Special (non-working) Holidays
Ninoy Aquino Day – August 21 ; This holiday commemorates the anniversary of the 1983 assassination of former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.
All Saints Day/All Souls Day – November 1 & 2 ; This is another one of the country’s Catholic holidays. During this time, Filipinos visit the tomb of their dearly departed to offer prayers, flowers, and food. Only November 1 is officailly a holiday.
Christmas Eve – December 24
New Year’s Eve – December 31
With this list, you will have a fair idea of when your employee may want to take time off from work. As per my experience, Filipino freelancers usually take time off when the holiday involves time spent with family. These will usually be the Holy Week (Maundy Thursday & Good Friday), All Saints & All Souls Day, Christmas, and New Year’s.
Can you please clarify:
1. What are the core non-working holidays that my VA would expect not to work?
2. What are the as-requested holidays which may be granted upon request?
3. Would they expect to be paid for either or both of the holidays 1) and 2) above?
Regards,
Michael
@Michael:
Hi! Those are very good questions.
1. Core Philippine holidays where you can give your VA some time off are the ff: New Year’s eve and New Year’s day, Holy Week (Thursday and Friday), Independence day, All Saints and All Souls days, Christmas eve and Christmas day. The rest of the holidays may still be spent working as generally, online freelancers work from home.
2. Should your VA request some time off during all other holidays listed in the post above, it should be ok for you to grant them that.
3. Paying your VA during the holidays listed above will be entirely up to you and your agreement with your provider. It would also largely depend on the mode of payment you had arranged. Generally, if you pay by the hour, if they don’t render any work, then they will also not expect to get paid. If you are paying on a fixed rate on a monthly basis, I suggest that you pay them for holidays listed in 1).
These are just my suggestions. It would be best that you make arrangements with your VA. Hope this helps!
i have a questions…. what are the benefits of an employee when he/she is already two years in the company. is he/she still can avail the service incentive leave? tnx
Hi Jenny,
The service incentive leave is a benefit given to employees who have been employed by a company by at least 1 year. So, if a person is employed by a company for 2 years, which is over a year, then the employee is definitely entitled to the service incentive leave. However, this all depends on whether or not you are employed by a brick and mortar company in the Philippines. The employee benefits I cited on another post is only applicable to companies with physical locations in the Philippines.
If you are employed online, the employee benefits mentioned may not apply to you. I wrote the post as a guideline for online employers on what they MAY offer as benefits to their online workers. If indeed you are employed online, you can always ask your employer/client to grant you a few days leave, with pay, per year. Maybe they are just not aware of what incentives they should give you. You can direct your employer to my post and have him use it as a reference.
Just remember, there is no harm in trying and if you ask politely, your employer will never take it against you for asking. HTH!
great post as usual!
Honey,
Further to your response to Michael. “If you are paying on a fixed rate on a monthly basis, I suggest that you pay them for holidays listed in 1).”
What would be the likely cultural and personal response of an employee if the employer offered them paid days off on the additional holidays (i.e. the ones indicated in response two, that the employee could legimately request off if they wanted). Even though the employer is not required to provide these paid what would be the likely cultural interpretation if this was offered?
Thanks,
Alex.
@Alex:
In response to your question, I am sure that employees would be very happy if you gave them paid days off on special non-working holidays. I, myself, would appreciate the gesture if my employer would offer me such a benefit. Cultural implications? It would simply imply that you, as an employer, are very flexible and are receptive to the cultural differences between you and your employee. It is truly a good thing if you are such and it will only bring positive results in your working relationship with your employee.
hi cute ng display nyo
hi there honey,
i was wondering if easyoutsourse.com is still working?..i tried to sign up and then i never receive a
confirmation message in my email..please tell me something about this..do email me..
shemerrhoue@gmail.com
thanks..
and,, are you paid for all this blogs and everything?..
@Jaye:
Problem solved!
Cool, i guess my boss read this article. As i didn’t expect that he sent me bunos last december. I almost got cried because i am very happy. He is not strict not bossy either, but he always want to have communication with me if it is related with business matter. But i believe that i believe he is kind as he allow me to have a cash advance also to bought a laptop.
So i give thanks to the Lord first and next to my boss. So it’s very obvious that i will do my best always on my job and of course be honest
@Aldrin:
Fantastic news there! We are happy for you that your boss is that kind! I know there are a lot of employers like them here in EasyOutsource. Just keep in mind guys, to never abuse it. Your employers can also be your friends and just do maintain a good working relationship.
Please I’m new here. How do I start. If I want to employee someone to work on creating my site, write articles, send traffic etc. How much do I pay and what is the medium of payment, Liberty Reserve, Alertpay, Paypal or how? I will really need an urgent answer
Thanks
@Prince Ade-Johnson
Depending on the experience level, expertise, professionalism, and work attitude most homebased employee starts from US$300 to US$1,200.
Typically, entry level employees who have 1 to 2 years experience could start at US$300. More experienced ones with 3 to 4 years wont go below US$500. While highly skilled, experts on their fields wont go below US$900. Highly experienced ones could finish the task in a day where an entry level could finish the same task in a week.
Payment is commonly via Paypal, Xoom, or any other methods that accepts direct pay to the employee’s online account, bank account, or remittance outlet. Don’t use escrow services or services that holds your employees pay until you give the approval to send the money to them. It just shows you don’t trust people working for you. And in return, you yourself can’t be trusted and better off working for somebody else.
@Rally:
Thanks for helping Prince!
@Prince:
Rally is right and you can base the salary on the skills of your applicant.
You can view the suggested and ideal rates on this article:
http://easyoutsource.com/blog/what-is-the-reasonable-rate-to-give-a-filipino-freelancer/
Regarding on the payments, you can use Paypal and Xoom.
Follow this link: http://easyoutsource.com/payment/
Overall, if you are new to EasyOutsource, you can find a lot of articles that will be helpful to you here. You can start reading worker tips to have an idea of where to start.
Hi
i am trying to find out about “extra” benefits (on top of mandatory requirments) that are usualy paid to employees. e.g. – how many paid vacation days and sick days do employees usualy get? Medical insurance/health care – do employers donate towards supporting dependants as well? what benefits do employees value most?
Hello Easyoutsource,
I was navigating to look for pictures about All Saints Day, to promote the Philippines.
.
I linked your site to my site, because your picture, depicts exactly what All Saints Day is like
in our country “Fiesta”
Happy All Saints Day!
Cyd
Hello Easyoutsource,
I was navigating to look for pictures about All Saints Day, to promote the Philippines.
I linked your site to my site.
Hope its okay.
Cyd
@Anat: Please check Honey’s article about the Employee benefits in the Philippines.
aren’t muslim holodays included?
Hi Josef, Muslim holidays can be add up to. We can include End of Ramadan although it is a movable date or varies just like Holy Week for Catholics.
HI. LAST WORKING DAY WAS LAST DEC23. THEN, WE TOLD OUR EMPLOYEES THAT WORK WILL RESUME ON JAN 2. DO WE NEED TO PAY THE FIXED RATE EMPLOYEES THE 5 NO WORK DAYS? DEC26,27,28,29,31? DOES NO WORK NO PAY APPLIES TO FIXED MONTHLY RATE EMPLOYEES?
Hi Bugz,
I believe that is allowed. Although on some companies, they pay the extra 5 days for their regular employees.
his sucks