Short answer. The employer can pay the deceased worker's wages directly to the heirs without going through intestate proceedings, once the heirs execute an affidavit of relationship and the payment is coursed through the Secretary of Labor and Employment or a representative, who also divides the amount among them.
What the law says
Where the worker has died, in which case, the employer may pay the wages of the deceased worker to the heirs of the latter without the necessity of intestate proceedings. The claimants, if they are all of age, shall execute an affidavit attesting to their relationship to the deceased and the fact that they are his heirs, to the exclusion of all other persons.
Labor Code, Article 105 — Direct Payment Of Wages. Read the full provision →
The general rule and its exception
Article 105 starts from the principle that wages must be paid directly to the worker who earned them. Death of the worker is one of the two situations the article names as an exception to that rule. Rather than forcing the family to open an intestate estate proceeding just to collect wages already earned, the article lets the employer pay the deceased worker's wages straight to the heirs, provided the steps it sets out are followed.
What the heirs have to provide
The heirs who are of age must execute an affidavit attesting to their relationship to the deceased worker and to the fact that they are his heirs, to the exclusion of all other persons. If one of the heirs is a minor, that heir's natural guardian or next-of-kin executes the affidavit on the minor's behalf. This affidavit is what allows the employer to release the wages without a court-supervised settlement of the estate for this particular amount.
The role of the Secretary of Labor and Employment
The affidavit is presented to the employer, who then makes payment through the Secretary of Labor and Employment or his representative, rather than handing the amount directly to whichever heir shows up. That representative also acts as referee in dividing the amount paid among the heirs, so the division among family members is not left to the employer or to informal agreement among the heirs themselves.
What this means for the employer's liability
Article 105 also protects the employer: payment of wages made in this way absolves the employer of any further liability with respect to the amount paid. Once the employer has paid through the proper channel following a valid affidavit, it cannot later be made to pay the same wages again to a different claimant. For the family, the practical takeaway is that unpaid wages of a deceased worker are recoverable through this specific route, separate from whatever else forms part of the worker's estate.