floating status queries - please reply

Good Day. I, together with few other employees at a company we work with were informed that due to the financial crisis the company is experiencing, they are forced to put us on 'floating status' without pay until they find new business or a position for us and we were made to sign an agreement to this effect. The indicated 'floating period' in the agreement is just for 4 months (dates specified). The period specified has already lapsed and I haven't heard from the company yet.

Am I within my rights to demand for my clearance and severance from the company together with my separation pay as indicated in the Labor Code even if it is just a little more than 4 months (6 months max in the labor code) since it is specified in the agreement we signed that it is only for 4 months?

Also, what if they say they want to extend it to the whole 6 months as allowed by law, can I refuse it since we signed an earlier agreement to ONLY 4 months?

Lastly, I can't find it anywhere on the Labor Code or any jurisprudence for it, but shouldn't the UNPAID 13th month pay (from January-May 2012 service rendered before put on floating status) be included in the computation of separation pay?

Please, please advise. Thank you in advance!

in my opinion, you can already demand it at the 4th month because it has become a contractual and vested right.

however, the legal remedy if they refuse is to file a complaint, and it may reach the 6th month already before anything substantial happens.

I have sent a very courteous letter to HR asking for clearance and severance from the company. I understand the intelligence in your advice attyLLL, that it would probably take more time, stress, effort and financial drawback to pursue any legal remedy. Sadly, this maximum 6 months provision in the Labor Code for 'floating status' is too long for an employee not to look for another job and thus being abused by companies (especially BPOs) to avoid paying separation pay to their employees.

What about the unpaid 13th month pay? shouldn't it be included in the separation pay computation?

thankyou for taking the time to respond attyLLL. more power and God Bless!

hoping to get a reply..


working po ako sa call center for almost 2years. ung account po namin is tinanggal ng company dahil hindi nagkasundo s bayaran. nong sept. 30 po un. pinag leave po kme ng 1 week using our VL/SL kase dw po no work no pay while waiting for new account. nagkaron po kame ng account. unfortunately, kasama po ako don sa mga hindi nakapasa. endorsed po ulit kame sa bagong account at don po kame nakapasa. ang kaso po ang training namin Nov. 12 pa. hindi po kame pinpapasok at pinapagamit po ulit samin ung VL/SL na natitira namin. kung maubos po un no work no pay n po. kase dw po floating status kame at hindi n daw nila ksalanan bkit hndi kame nakapasa sa unang acct.

pag floating status po b, no work no pay? tsaka more than a month na po kame folating since nov. 12 pa kame babalik, dpat po db may redundancy pay n kme?

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attorneys, any reply on my query above?

bogz, in my opinion, the period of suspension of employments should not be included in the computation of 13th month pay.

babe, floating status can be up to 6 months