Newly Regularised Employees Want the Same Extra Benefits: A Philippine Employer's Guide

First, separate mandatory from voluntary benefits

Start by classifying every benefit the employees are asking for. Mandatory benefits are those the law requires for all qualifying employees, such as thirteenth-month pay, statutory leave, and contributions to social security, housing fund and health insurance. There is no "only after regularisation" or "only for senior staff" for these; if an employee qualifies, they must receive them. See mandatory employee benefits in the Philippines.

Voluntary benefits are what the company provides beyond the law: additional medical insurance, year-end bonuses, meal and transport allowances, service awards, staff discounts and similar. In principle the company decides who receives them and on what terms, but that discretion has limits. For the difference between a bonus and thirteenth-month pay, see year-end bonus versus thirteenth-month pay.

List the requests in a table and mark each as mandatory or voluntary. Check the mandatory items first and correct any shortfall immediately. The real dispute is usually about voluntary items, which need to be examined one by one.

Share the classification table with management before anyone talks to the employees. Leaders often discover at this stage that the company has been more generous or less consistent than they thought, and it is far better to learn that internally than in front of a labour officer.

If some requests turn out to be mandatory items that were overlooked, fix them quickly and say so openly. Correcting a genuine gap promptly builds credibility for the company's position on the items it decides not to extend.

Do not let the classification exercise drag on. Employees who have just been regularised are watching how the company responds, and a delay of several weeks with no word can feel like a refusal even when management is genuinely working on it.

Check the basis: how was each benefit granted?

Whether a voluntary benefit can be limited to long-serving staff depends on how it was granted. If it rests on a written policy, such as an employee handbook stating that it applies to regular employees with a minimum length of service or to certain grades, apply the policy as written: a regularised employee who meets the conditions receives it, and one who does not, does not.

If the benefit is written into employment contracts or a collective agreement, it is a contractual right and must be applied to those the contract covers; it cannot be withheld at will. If it rests on long practice, with the company giving it to all regular employees for years without clear conditions, employees may argue it has become part of their terms of employment.

Philippine labour law generally protects employees against the unilateral reduction of benefits they already enjoy; how that principle applies to a particular case is a question for counsel. It mainly protects people already receiving a benefit, but it is also a warning: once a benefit has been given widely and unconditionally for a long time, it becomes hard to treat employees differently.

Gather the evidence of how each benefit was actually administered: approval memos, payroll codes, past announcements and who received it in which years. Practice on the ground sometimes differs from what the handbook says, and it is the actual practice that employees and labour officers will look at.

Note any benefit that was introduced informally by a former manager or an overseas head office without a written policy. These are the items most likely to be contested, because nobody can show clearly who they were meant for.

Similarly situated staff should not be treated differently

Even for voluntary benefits, if newly regularised employees hold the same positions, do the same work and are at the same grade as long-serving staff, excluding them only because they "were just regularised" or "used to be contractors" may be seen as unreasonable discrimination and lead to labour complaints.

A defensible distinction rests on objective criteria fixed in advance, such as length of service, grade, performance or work location, and applied equally to everyone. A rule such as "eligible after two years of service" is objective; how a regularised employee's service is counted then becomes a seniority question, covered in seniority disputes after regularisation.

Take particular care where employees were regularised because of a finding of labour-only contracting. The finding itself may already require adjustments to pay and benefits, which must be complied with first; see after a labour-only contracting finding.

When in doubt, test the distinction by asking whether you could explain it comfortably to the whole workforce. If the only honest explanation is that the company wanted to save money on one group, the distinction is unlikely to hold up.

Also check consistency across sites and departments. A benefit given to regularised staff at one branch but refused at another, without a documented reason, is exactly the kind of inconsistency that turns a single request into a wider complaint.

Look also at how the newly regularised group is being introduced to their teams. If they sit alongside long-serving colleagues doing identical work, visible differences in benefits will be noticed every day, and the pressure to justify them will only grow over time.

Where a distinction is justified, apply it from a clearly stated date and to everyone who meets the same criteria in future, not only to this group.

Respond in writing: give reasons, do not stall

Do not ignore the request or answer vaguely in passing. HR should reply in writing within a reasonable time, item by item: which benefits the employees already receive, which will apply under the policy and from when, which do not apply because the policy conditions are not met, and the specific policy or contract clause relied on.

Use language employees understand, with English and local-language versions where helpful, and set out a review route: employees who disagree on an item can submit a written comment, and the company will review it within a set time. Transparent handling like this is far better than letting discontent spread informally until it becomes a group complaint.

If the company decides to extend some benefits, record the start date, conditions and whether anything is retroactive, so employees do not assume every request was granted. If the company is unsure how to classify a benefit, have labour counsel assess it before replying.

Hold a short meeting to walk employees through the written reply instead of only sending it by email. People accept reasons more readily when they can ask questions, and the meeting shows that the company takes the request seriously.

Keep the reply and any meeting notes in the personnel files. If the issue resurfaces a year later with new managers on both sides, the file shows exactly what was decided and why.

Avoid promising anything verbally in that meeting that is not in the written reply. If an employee raises a point the company has not considered, say it will be reviewed and answered in writing, then follow up within the stated time so the written record stays complete.

If employees go to the labour authorities

If employees are not satisfied, they may request mediation before the labour authorities or file a complaint. Attend on time and bring the benefits policy and handbook, the relevant employment contracts, records of how benefits were paid, your written reply to the employees, and the basis for any distinction you applied.

Mediation is often the best moment to settle. Weigh the cost of granting part of the request against the cost of a continuing dispute and its effect on morale. A written, phased arrangement agreed in mediation is frequently better for the company than a formal ruling.

If the dispute goes further, have a lawyer represent the company and assess the case on the evidence. Avoid any adverse action against employees who raised the request, which could be treated as retaliation and complicate matters further. Keep everything in writing.

Assign one person to coordinate with counsel and the labour office, so that dates, documents and positions stay consistent. Different managers sending different explanations is one of the quickest ways to weaken an otherwise reasonable position.

Use the time before the mediation date to prepare a clear one-page summary of the company's position and the documents behind it. Mediators deal with many cases, and a concise, well-organised presentation helps them understand the company's view quickly.

Keep management informed of each stage with short written updates. Decisions about settlement often need approval from shareholders or a head office abroad, and those approvals take time; preparing them early avoids missing the chance to settle when the mediator proposes terms.

Prepare in advance the range within which the company is willing to settle, so the representative at mediation can respond to proposals without breaking off the session to seek instructions.

Preventing the next dispute, and how YIXING helps

Most of these disputes come from benefit rules that were never written down. Put every voluntary benefit into a written policy that states who is eligible, the conditions, how it is paid, and the company's right to adjust it. When introducing a new benefit, state whether it is one-off or ongoing. On regularisation, promotion or transfer, list in the notice which benefits apply.

If you plan to convert contractor positions into direct employment, plan the benefits transition before the change: how service is counted, which benefits apply from the regularisation date, and any transitional arrangements. Explain it to employees in advance rather than after the dispute begins.

YIXING can help review your benefits policies and handbook, prepare written replies in Chinese and English, organise documents for labour mediation, and connect you with a licensed labour lawyer when needed. We cannot promise mediation or ruling outcomes. Contact us through YIXING visa and HR services. YIXING is a private consultancy registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC Reg. No. CS202009551), holding Bureau of Immigration accreditation (BI Accreditation No. CA-202624381-1, valid until 2027-06-30) and DOLE and PRA accreditation. We are not affiliated with any government agency. Every case is different — please consult a licensed lawyer; this article is not legal advice.

For groups with operations in several cities, we can also help harmonise benefit policies across sites, so that the same role receives the same treatment wherever it is located, and differences that remain are documented with clear reasons.

We can prepare a simple benefits matrix for management, showing each benefit, who receives it and on what basis, which makes future regularisations and promotions far easier to handle consistently.