Hours
Undertime
Undertime is hours not worked inside the scheduled shift. The Code does not let you offset undertime against overtime on another day as a private netting hobby.
How it works
If they miss two hours, you dock two hours under a documented policy or require leave. You do not say ‘make it up Saturday’ and then skip rest-day premium. Timekeeping has to show the miss. Remote work makes silent undertime easy: the green dot lies. Measure output windows and system logs you actually have permission to use. For a U.S. company hiring one Filipino teammate, write this into the brief, the employment contract, and the peso payroll file before the start date. Slack habits do not override the Labor Code, BIR, or NPC. If the local employer of record holds the paper, they run the statutory step; you still owe a clean operating definition so the seat does not fail in week three. Put a number on the example when you budget loaded cost, because a nameless allowance always returns as a December surprise or a missed SLA.
Example: shift 8 a.m.-5 p.m. PHT, offline 2-4 p.m. without leave. Two hours undertime, not a moral lecture. Saturday catch-up is a new work block with its own rules.
How it differs
AWOL is disappearing without leave. Meal period is a break rule. Timekeeping is the record.
Common errors
Netting a week of hours and paying only the sum. Punishing undertime with a public shaming thread.
In practice
Treat Undertime as a week-one operating object. Write the hours and the next Philippine holiday on the same page as the job brief. If this word would change pay or coverage that week, lock it before the interview. Write an owner - founder, local employer, or worker - and a date you will look at it again: first cutoff, first holiday, or first miss. If nobody can show a contract clause, a payslip line, a calendar block, or a checklist box, you do not have undertime yet. You have a conversation. Convert the conversation before the person starts, while changing the deal still costs a paragraph rather than a resignation. Re-read the worked example above against the actual hire in front of you. If the numbers in that example cannot be swapped for this seat’s pesos, hours, and start date, the brief is still unfinished.