Employment: refers to the number of workers in the establishment as of the reference period, which includes working owners, unpaid workers and paid officials and employees. Excluded are workers receiving commission only and without employer's control, managers and directors paid solely for their attendance at Board of Director's meeting, silent or inactive partners and contractor/agency hired workers.

Union: any registered group or association of employees that exists in whole or in part for the purpose of collective bargaining or dealing with employers concerning terms and conditions of employment.

Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA): the negotiated contract between a legitimate labor organization and the employer concerning wages, hours of work, and all other terms and conditions of employment in the bargaining unit including mandatory provisions for grievance and arbitration machinery.

Natural Attrition: gradual reduction in workforce usually done by not filling up the position once it is vacated.

Voluntary Resignation: involves employees volunteering to resign when management calls for workforce reduction.

Layoff: termination of employment initiated by the employer due to economic/non-economic reasons except dismissal. It may be permanent or temporary.

Dismissal: termination from employment initiated by the employer due to misconduct, incompetence of employees, and the like.

Grievance: a complaint or dissatisfaction arising from the interpretation or implementation of the CBA and/or those arising from the interpretation or enforcement of company personnel policies.

Industrial Action: a concerted work stoppage resorted to by workers concerning any controversy or matter relating to terms or conditions of employment or company policies. It is also resorted to by workers in protest or in support of a national issue or pronouncement not arising from conflicts between workers and employers.

Strike: any temporary stoppage of work by the concerted action of employees as a result of an industrial or labor dispute. Includes actual strike (with or without notice) filed at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.

Conciliation/Mediation: mode of settlement bringing together the two parties in a dispute to come to negotiations and settlement of the dispute.

Labor-Management Cooperation: any arrangement, mechanism, activity, or process, apart form the grievance committee, which is made up of workers and management whether unionized or not in order to improve labor-management relations and working conditions, increase productivity, and enhance the quality of work life.

Voluntary Arbitration: mode of settling labor-management disputes by which the parties by mutual consent select a competent, trained and impartial person who shall decide on the merits of the cases and whose decision is final, executory and unappealable. The parties may choose from a pool of voluntary arbitrators accredited by the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.

Sympathetic Strike: a form of concerted work stoppage resulting in strong support for a group of workers already on strike but have no particular dispute or difference with their own employer.

Boycott: a form of concerted action by employees and their union to refrain from patronizing the products or services of their company.

Mass Leave: a form of concerted work stoppage where the union and the workers avail en masse of their paid leaves under their CBA or by law or where said workers/union go on a massive absence without official leave.

Sitdown: a form of concerted work stoppage where workers refuse to work inside a factory or establishment after punching their time cards.

Slowdown: a deliberate lessening of work effort for a definite purpose and time. It is similar to a strike and differs from the latter only in the degree of stoppage involved.

Overtime Ban: a deliberate refusal of workers and their union to render overtime work in connection with a labor dispute.

Globalization: the increasingly freer movement of capital, managerial skills and technical expertise across countries amid decreasing impediments to such movements. It is characterized by increasing economic liberalization and falling tariff barriers, integrated financial markets and multinational companies that operate on the premise of homogeneous world market.

Industrial: The industry classification is based on the 1994 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC). It was patterned after the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), Rev. 3 of the United Nations, up to the 4-digit level, but with modifications to suit national situations and circumstances.

Employment Size: The classification of establishments according to employment size is based on the average total employment, e.g. 20-49, 50-199 and 200 and over.

Others: Establishments are categorized as to existence of unions, ownership and market orientation.

Survey universe/Sample frame: The sampling frame used for the survey was taken from the List of Establishments of the National Statistics Office. This is regularly updated based on the responses to other surveys of the BLES, establishment reports on retrenchments and closures submitted to the Regional Offices of the Department of Labor and Employment and other establishment lists.

Sample design: The IRWS adopts the design of the Labor Cost Survey, also of the Bureau. Among others, wages and salaries are part of labor cost and these are dictated by wage practices in establishments. These practices in turn affect industrial relations. Both surveys have the same respondents and are conducted simultaneously.

Establishments are stratified by 3-digit industry level (except for industries observed to be heterogeneous within their 3-digit level and therefore requires further breakdown at the 4-digit classification) and by employment size. Geographical location was not considered in the stratification since some components of labor costs may not be available specific to a sample establishment that is a branch of a parent company or head office.

The sampling formula used to determine the sample size of an industry group in each size category was based on establishment population; the estimated variance of labor cost and the expected coefficient of variation of average labor cost. The sample size for each cell was adjusted to build-in replacement, e.g. sample size divided by 0.8 as expected retrieval rate is 80 percent.

Sample size: For 1999 IRWS, the sample size was 7,562, of which 5,820 were found to be eligible sampling units.