Is an employee hired on January 3 and 4 entitled to Uniform and Clothing Allowance (U/CA)?

We always encounter the “4-month service requirement” when granting bonuses and allowances.

For instance, the grant of Year-End Bonus (YEB), Cash Gifts, Mid-Year Bonus (MYB), and Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI), require among other conditions, that “personnel must have rendered at least a total or an aggregate of four (4) months of service from a certain period of time.”

But what about the service requirement for the grant of uniform and clothing allowance (U/CA), especially for the new employees hired during the current year?

Pursuant to Item 9.1 of Budget Circular No. 2018-1, a newly-hired employee may qualify to the grant of U/CA only after rendering six (6) months of service, and if expected to render services for at least six (6) months for the rest of the year.

Emphasis: There are two conditons required for newly-hired employees to be entitled to U/CA, as enumerated below:

1. A newly-hired employee may qualify to the grant of U/CA only after rendering six (6) months of service; and
2. The newly-hired employee is expected to render services for at least six (6) months for the rest of the year.

In our article entitled “How to count number of days for purposes of computing the 4-month service requirement?”, we have thoroughly discussed our own interpretation on how to count the number of days for purposes of computing the 4-month service requirement.

In the said article we discussed what is the definition of legal periods, as provided in EO 292, to provide legal basis for the computation of the 4-month service requirement.

Pursuant to EO 292, otherwise known as the Administrative Code of 1987, legal periods are defined as follows:

Section 31. Legal Periods. – “Year” shall be understood to be twelve calendar months; “month” of thirty days, unless it refers to a specific calendar month in which case it shall be computed according to the number of days the specific month contains; “day,” to a day of twenty-four hours; and “night,” from sunset to sunrise.

Note: If a legal month is 30 days, it means that Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays are included in the counting.

Thus, if a month is equivalent to 30 days, then a “4-month service requirement” is equivalent to 120 days (i.e., 4 x 30 = 120). Similarly, if a month is equivalent to 30 days, then a year is equivalent to 360 days.

Thus, if the requirements for the grant of U/CA are: 1) the new employee have rendered six (6) months of service; and 2) he/she is expected to render six (6) of service for the rest of the year, it means that the employee should render a total of 12 months or 360 days to be entitled to U/CA.

For fiscal year 2019, the number of days for each month is computed as follows:

January — 31 days

February — 28 days

March — 31 days

April — 30 days

May — 31 days

June — 30 days

July — 31 days

August — 31 days

September — 30 days

October — 31 days

November — 30 days

December — 31 days

Test Case: Is an employee hired on January 3, 2019 entitled to the U/CA for CY 2019?

Let’s apply the counting for clarity. If the new employee was hired on January 3, 2019, then his/her services is computed as follows, in view of EO 292:

Let’s count:

January 3 to 31 = 29

February = 28 days

March = 31 days

April = 30 days

May = 31 days

June = 30 days

July = 31 days

August = 31 days

September = 30 days

October = 31 days

November = 30 days

December = 31 days

Total: 363 days (Requirement: 360 days)

Thus, the new employee hired on January 3, 2019 (even the one hired on January 4, 2019) is entitled to U/CA allowance this 2019, inasmuch as he/she will be able to complete/comply the 360-days (12 months) service requirement, in view of our own interpretation of the definition of legal periods as provided in EO 292.

This instant case is recommended to be referred to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for appropriate technical assistance/interpretation.

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