PHILIPPINES Law and Practice Contributed by: Ignatius Michael Ingles, The Law Firm of Ingles Laurel Calderon
oppressive, local courts may also be an avenue of redress.
cap. Other professional leagues leave it up to their teams to have their own contracts with their players. 7.2 Employer/Employee Rights Despite the employer/employee nature of the relationship between the professional team and its players, legal precedence and international trend, the rules on employer/employee rights are rarely applied or followed in professional leagues in the Philippines. Professional athletes who are illegally removed or dismissed from their teams are therefore often left in a quandary on the proper legal course of action to take. Should they file with the Labour Arbiter as employees or with the regular courts as independent contrac - tors? While the answer should be with the Labour Arbiter, the practice in the Philippines of con - sidering professional athletes as mere independ - ent contractors has given erring employees the additional defence of lack of jurisdiction when - ever a case is filed with the Labour Arbiter. A noteworthy case is the 2012 Supreme Court Case of Negros Slasher, Inc v Alvin Teng, where the Supreme Court ruled that a player-employ - ee was illegally dismissed by their professional basketball team after they had refused to play a championship game. The Supreme Court rec - ognised the player as an employee and that dis - missal was too harsh a penalty. 7.3 Free Movement of Athletes There are no specific laws capping the number of foreign athletes competing in a sports tourna - ment or competition, as these caps are normally set by the league or association conducting the competition. However, there are visa, immigra - tion and labour law considerations that foreign athletes or coaches must consider before play -
7. Employment 7.1 Sports-Related Employment Contracts
The governing law for labour and employment in the Philippines is the Labour Code. To deter - mine whether an employer/employee relation - ship exists between parties, the Supreme Court has repeatedly used the fourfold test employing the four elements: • the selection and engagement of the employ - ee; • the payment of wages; • the power of dismissal over the employee; and • the employer’s power to control the employ - ee’s conduct. Despite the presence of all four elements in the relationship between professional teams and their players, and a 2012 Supreme Court case involving the illegal dismissal of a player-employ - ee by their professional team, professional sports teams have still treated their players as merely independent contractors in practice. This is in clear contrast to what is written in the law, the nature of the relationship and the international trend that considers players employees of their professional teams. This leads to both tax and employment law complications and removes protections that should have been afforded to a player if they were to be considered an employee in the first place. The PBA, the longest-running professional bas - ketball league in the Philippines, employs both a standard contract for its players and a salary
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