Villanueva urges regularization of casual, contractual gov’t workers

Senator Joel Villanueva urged the government to assure “security of tenure” for casual and contractual government workers, saying that the two-year job extension under an amended joint circular was not enough.

“We can do more than just give a two-year job extension to contractual workers in the government. Let us institutionalize the right to security of tenure of all casual and contractual employees of the government who have long been serving in the public sector,” Villanueva said in a statement.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) together with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Commission on Audit (COA) amended the joint Circular No. 1 series of 2017, allowing government agencies to get new contract of service (COS) and job order (JO) workers and renew existing contracts until Dec. 31, 2020.

With this, Villanueva wanted government agencies to undertake “the necessary fiscal and organizational measures to regularize” the government workers.

The senator lamented that if the government would continue to implement labor contractualization, the private sector may not regularize its workers.

“How can we expect the private sector to follow suit if the government itself implements labor contractualization?” Villanueva said.

Moreover, it was stated under the circular that qualified COS and JO workers would be considered for appointment to vacant positions of government agencies, subject to existing civil service laws, rules and regulations, and CSC-approved merit selection plans. /ee