Solon insists there’s nothing wrong with workers’ 2-year probationary period

Probinsyano Ako Rep. Jose “Bonito” Singson Jr. during the hearing of the House labor and employment committee on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019. INQUIRER.net photo / Pathricia Ann V. Roxas

MANILA, Philippines — Unfazed by criticisms his proposal received, businessman and Probinsyano Ako Rep. Jose “Bonito” Singson Jr. has again defended the bill extending workers’ six-month probationary period to two years.

At the hearing of the House labor and employment committee on Wednesday, Singson insisted House Bill No. 4802 would “save” workers who are fired after the six-month probationary period by giving them more chance to prove themselves to be regularized.

“Sinasabi natin imbes na ma-terminate (Instead of being terminated)… let’s give them a chance to continue being employed. What’s so wrong with that? We all know that there’s a lot of employees being terminated every six months or every five months,” Singson told the panel.

Various labor groups strongly opposed the bill saying this would just prolong the suffering of workers without security of tenure.

“Ang gusto namin maging regular, kung pwede ‘wag nyo na pong pahabain, na pigilan ‘yung aming pagiging regular sa kumpanya,” Daniel Edralin of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Mangagawa said.

(Our desire is to be regularized, please do not impede this or prolong our route to be regularized by our companies.)

Louie Corral, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines vice-president, said this would just worsen the present “corporate impunity” being experienced by some workers.

“Why prolong the agony? If the question is competence then you have already a six-month period to determine competence. ‘Wag ho na natin palalain ‘yung tinatawag nating  (Let us not worsen) corporate impunity,” he said.

Department of Labor and Employment Asec. Benjo Benavidez also warned that the proposal should be studied further as the two-year probationary period may be too long and may not solve the problem on contractualization where workers are not regularized and given security of tenure.

Labor Sec. Silvestre Bello III already rejected the proposed law. He said the bill, which would “delay a worker’s assurance of permanent employment,” is “no longer in keeping with the administration’s policy on security of tenure.”

House committee chair and 1-Pacman Rep. Enrico Pineda said the bill would be included among the bills that a technical working group would further discuss on Thursday. /jpv