[ Act No. 724, April 07, 1903 ]

AN ACT TO AMEND ACT NUMBERED EIGHTY, AS AMENDED, BY REQUIRING THAT DURING THE HEATED TERM THE HOURS OF LABOR REQUIRED OF EMPLOYEES EACH DAY MAY BE REDUCED TO FIVE UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Section one of Act Numbered Eighty, entitled "An Act regulating the hours of labor, leaves of absence, and transportation of appointees under the Philippine Civil Service," as amended by Act Numbered Three hundred and thirty-eight, is hereby further amended by adding at the dose of the first sentence of said section, after the word "compensation," the following words: "Provided, however, That during the heated term from the first day of April to the fifteenth day of June in each year the heads of Departments, Bureaus, or Offices in the Philippine civil service shall have discretion to reduce the required number of hours of labor each day, not including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, to five hours, one hour and a half of which time shall be after four o'clock in the afternoon: And provided further, That during the present year of nineteen-hundred and three the period during which such reduction in the hours of labor may be granted shall be from the tenth day of April to the twenty-fifth-day of June."

SEC. 2. The provisions of the preceding section shall not oblige the head of a Department, Bureau, or Office in the Philippine civil service to reduce the hours of labor to five hours, but it shall be within his discretion to reduce the present number of hours if consistent with the needs of the public service. The amendment shall not be regarded as conferring a right upon officers or employees.

SEC. 3. The reduction of the required hours of labor under this Act shall not apply to the officers or employees of any Department, Bureau, or Office to whom an overtime wage is allowed and paid.

SEC. 4. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, April 7, 1903.