Bayan Muna, TUCP: 2-year ‘probie’ period will fuel contractualization
CAPAS, Tarlac, Philippines — Businessman and Probinsyano Ako Rep. Jose “Bonito” Singson Jr.’s proposal to extend the probationary period for workers from six months to two years is a big blow to laborer’s right to security of tenure and would perpetuate contractualization, two party-list representatives advocating for worker’s rights said Thursday.
“The proposal to extend the probationary period of employment should not be allowed as it will only further deny our workforce their right to security of tenure and its concomitant benefits,” Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said in a statement in response to Singson’s House Bill No. 4802 which proposes a 24-month probationary status for employees.
“Masyadong mahaba ‘yan (That is too long). The current six months should be enough time for employers to gauge if a worker is fit for a job,” Gaite added, lamenting how this proposal could extend their time in “employment limbo.”
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines Rep. Raymond Mendoza also opposed Singson’s bill saying it would encourage the “end of contract” practice.
“Not supporting it, it actually diminishes the gains of labor, it will encourage endo or contractualization,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza said this bill would also “permanently institutionalize the current modern-day labor slavery system in the country” and “forever deprive [workers] from getting their fair share of economic prosperity they helped produce.”
Instead, Congress should ensure that a genuinely pro-worker Security of Tenure Law gets enacted soonest, especially that the Department of Labor and Employment has been revealed to be backing a version of the bill that would even perpetuate contractualization instead of ending it, according to Gaite.
House labor and employment committee chair and 1-Pacman Rep. Enrico Pineda meanwhile said the two-year probationary period may not be applicable to all types of jobs.
“I can assure that all the positions of all the stakeholders, including the government agencies concerned, are being considered and studied to ensure that the balance may be achieved as envisioned by the President,” Pineda added.
In pushing for the two-year probationary status, Singson, the younger brother of Ilocos Sur kingpin Luis “Chavit” Singson, claimed that the current six-month period is “insufficient” in determining a worker’s qualification for regular status.
He argued that because of the present set-up, “employers are left with no recourse but to end the probationary employment even when they are still in the process of evaluating the probationary employee to avoid the automatic regularization of an unqualified employee in their workforce.”
Singson also said that the extended probationary period would “provide employees better opportunities to prove their value to the employer” and allow them to “have continuous employment for more than six months”
“We are in effect creating better job security for the average probationary employee, who most often than not fall victim to company practices that take advantage of loopholes in the law,” the party-list representative claimed.
In August, the House Makabayan bloc refiled their “pro-worker and stronger” version of the Security of Tenure bill which President Rodrigo Duterte had vetoed after certifying it as urgent last year.
House Bill No. 3381 seeks to repeal Article 106 of the Labor Code of the Philippines and introduce a prohibition on all forms of contractualization or labor-only contracting and fixed-term employment. Other anti-endo bills have been filed in the House and are being tackled by Pineda’s panel.
The proposed law seeking to end the labor-only contracting scheme was supposed to lapse into law by July 27 this year but Duterte vetoed it amid the lobbying of the country’s biggest local and foreign business groups which claimed of its negative effects to the Philippine economy and the labor force.
Although Duterte affirmed his commitment to prevent abuse of workers, he also stressed in his veto message the need to leave businesses “free to engage in those practices beneficial to both management and the workforce” and free to “determine whether they should outsource certain activities or not.”
He claimed legitimate job-contracting should be allowed provided that the contractor is “well capitalized, has sufficient investments, and affords its employees all the benefits.”/muf
READ: It’s official: Duterte vetoes Security of Tenure bill
