Over the past months, news reports about the contractualization of workers in multi-million companies such as PLDT, NutriAsia, and Jollibee were all the buzz. Laborers became involved in violent dispersals and protests, demanding they be regularized and given just compensation, benefits and privileges, as well as safe-working environments. End of contract (endo) employment is seemingly built on the premise of cost-cutting and income maximization, but the question stands now: what future do laborers have with such a set-up?
A system’s legacy
The debates of the usage of endo has been a long-standing argument. This pervasive practice within labor systems of businesses in the Philippines started during the 1970s during the establishment of its first export processing zone and has been boycotted by the labor union groups for years.
Article 281 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, which covers Probationary Employment, states that, “Probationary employment shall not exceed six (6) months from the date the employee started working, unless it is covered by an apprenticeship agreement stipulating a longer period. The services of an employee who has been engaged on a probationary basis may be terminated for a just cause or when he fails to qualify as a regular employee in accordance with reasonable standards made known by the employer to the employee at the time of his engagement.”
However, some employers utilize a loophole in the article which enables them to avoid the process of regularizing a probationary worker. Companies are free to practice contractualization without any consequences as long as they maintain a “contractual employing only” policy, which makes this practice legal as long as they have existing regularized employees.
The employer initiates a business practice of a 5-5-5 strategy wherein the employer will hire a worker for only five months and then rehire the same worker for another five months. Despite of the workers’ length of stay or quality of work, they are denied their benefits as employees such as SSS, Pag-IBIG, and 13th month pay, among other benefits.
In an interview with The Benildean, Mardi Suplido, who worked as Assistant Mall Manager in SM Bacolod in 2008 from March to September, the fear of no permanence is work was evident in salesladies.
“The contractualization practice was done more with salesladies. Their contracts was five months and 29 days, then rest for two months, then apply again. No one was permanent,” she said.
Because of the country’s vague stance on such loopholes, laborers continue to be at the receiving end of such exploitative practices.
Banking on Duterte’s promise
“The moment I assume the presidency, contractualization will stop.”
These were the definitive words of President Rodrigo Duterte during his presidential campaign in 2016. Now, two years into his six-year presidency, there has been evident progress in the fight against endo, especially when Duterte signed Executive Order (EO)No. 51, which seeks to implement Article 106 of the Labor Code and protect the welfare of workers, last May 1.
[It] is the declared policy of the government to protect the worker’s right to security of tenure by eradicating all forms of abusive employment practices through the strict implementation of the Labor Code, as amended… [Section 2] Illegal Contracting or Subcontracting. Contracting or subcontracting, when undertaken to circumvent the worker’s right of security of tenure, self-organization and collective bargaining, and peaceful concerted activities pursuant to the 1987 Philippine Constitution is hereby strictly prohibited,” EO No. 51 states.
In addition, operations such as contracting employees through an in-house agency, a system of employment done through a cooperative which merely supplies workers to the principal employee, is also prohibited. EO No. 51 aims to stop contractors and subcontractors in requiring contractual employees to do work that should be performed by regular employees within their company.
Meanwhile, last March, Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate, Antonio Tinio, France Castro, Emmi De Jesus, Arlene Brosas, Ariel Casilao, and Sarah Elago filed House Bill No. 7415 or the “Security of Tenure for Non-Regular Employees in Government Act of 2018.” The bill aims to provide the security and civil service privileges to all non-regular and/or contractual employees who worked for at least six months in government offices, Local Government Units, state colleges, and other government-owned corporations and instrumentalities. Majority of these workers are the forefront of the delivery of social services namely the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Education.
Furthermore, according to Rep. Tinio, the number of casual employees and personnel on Contracts of Service and Job Orders skyrocketed to 721,282 as of July 2016.
People in the labor force play an essential role in the growth and continuing development of any country, not only in the economic sense but also in guaranteeing the welfare of such citizens is
Secured. By debunking the myth of endo, abused and exploited laborers will have a chance at a future wherein they won’t worry about job security every six months, while also receiving just compensation for their work.
This article was originally published in The Benildean Vol. 4 No. 3: Aftermath.
