The single largest surprise for a client from Australia, the United Kingdom or the United States is that employment here is not at will and nothing resembling it exists.
Security of tenure
A regular employee may be dismissed only for causes set out in the Labor Code, and the process is prescribed. The causes divide into two kinds.
Just causes concern the employee's conduct: serious misconduct, wilful disobedience of lawful orders, gross and habitual neglect of duties, fraud or breach of trust, commission of a crime against the employer, and causes analogous to these.
Authorised causes concern the business: redundancy, retrenchment to prevent losses, closure, the installation of labour-saving devices, and disease. These require notice to the employee and to the labour department, and they require separation pay.
Poor performance is not on either list in the way an Australian employer would expect. It can support a just cause where it amounts to gross and habitual neglect, and that is a higher bar than underperformance.
Due process
For a just cause the requirement is commonly described as two notices: a written notice specifying the acts complained of and giving the employee an opportunity to explain, a hearing or opportunity to be heard, and a second written notice of the decision.
Skipping the process does not merely risk a penalty. A dismissal found to be without just cause or without due process can result in reinstatement and back wages.
What this means for a client
Under staff leasing the provider is the employer and carries this, which is a substantial part of what the margin buys. It still constrains you: asking for somebody to be removed on Friday is asking the provider to do something they may not lawfully do.
Plan on managing performance rather than replacing people, which is better practice anyway and is here also a legal necessity.
Probation
Probationary employment is limited in duration, commonly six months, and the standards for becoming regular must be communicated at the time of engagement. Where they are not, an employee may be treated as regular from the start.
This is the period in which a mismatch can be resolved most easily, which is an argument for making the first ninety days a real assessment rather than a formality. The entry on choosing the first role sets out what to review.
Hours, rest and premiums
The normal working day is eight hours, with a rest day of at least twenty-four consecutive hours after six consecutive working days. Overtime attracts a premium, work on a rest day attracts a higher one, and work between the late evening and early morning attracts a night differential.
For a client whose business hours require an early start rather than a night shift, the differential does not usually arise. For one in Europe or the Americas it does, and it belongs in the cost model.
Leave
Statutory service incentive leave is a small number of days after a year of service and is a floor rather than a norm; most employers of any size provide more. Maternity leave was substantially expanded in 2019 and is longer than in several Western countries. Paternity and solo parent leave exist separately.
What a client should actually do
Ask the provider to walk through their disciplinary process before signing, not after a problem. Ask what happens if you want somebody moved and what the realistic timeline is.
And treat the answer as information about the arrangement rather than as an obstacle. An employment system with real protections produces different management incentives, and mostly better ones.
Performance management, done properly here
Written expectations at the start, documented feedback when performance falls short, a stated period to improve with support, and a record of it. That sequence is good management anywhere and here it is also what makes a later decision defensible.
Clients used to at-will employment sometimes skip the documentation because it feels bureaucratic. It is the difference between a lawful process and an unlawful dismissal, and the provider carries the consequence.
Resignation
An employee resigning is generally required to give notice, commonly thirty days, which the employer may waive. In practice a good employee who has decided to leave is gone in a month and the handover happens or does not depending on whether anybody asked for it in week one.
Ask for it in week one. The entry on ending an engagement makes the same point from the other direction.
This entry describes the general shape of Philippine employment law as it applies to arrangements of this kind. It is not legal advice, the Labor Code and its implementing rules contain conditions and exceptions this summary does not cover, jurisprudence develops, and the position in any particular case depends on facts. Take advice from a Philippine labour lawyer before relying on any of it, and separate advice in your own jurisdiction on your own obligations.