Probinsyano Ako Rep. Jose “Bonito” Singson Jr.
MANILA, Philippines — The termination of workers before their six-month probation period ends shows the need to extend the prescribed period of probation to 24 months.
Probinsyano Ako Rep. Jose “Bonito” Singson Jr. said this Tuesday as he insisted that his proposed law, House Bill No. 4802, “is definitely a pro-labor measure” that would help workers avoid short term employment.
“I find it amusing that the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the primary critic of my proposal, was quoted in the said article, as having stated, that ‘endo refers to end of contract in which workers are let go before the sixth month so they won’t be regularized and paid higher wages and a host of benefits’,” Singson said in a statement.
“This is an admission on their part that there is indeed a major problem of employees being terminated before the six-month period lapses, instead of being regularized,” he added. “This is a clear validation for the foundation of my advocacy to extend the prescribed period of probation which aims to solve the vicious cycle of massive termination before the six-month period lapses.”
Singson was referring to an article published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer titled “‘Tis the season for ‘endo’ jobs” in which a paragraph defines what the term “endo” means. The paragraph, however, was not attributed to TUCP.
According to Singson, extending the prescriptive period to 24 months allows employees to have a longer period of employment, which thereby ends “the so-called practice of ‘endo’ that terminates the employee before the six-month probationary period lapses.”
Prolonging the agony?
The lawmaker then criticized groups, particularly TUCP, for denouncing his bill as a mere piece of a proposed law that would only prolong the agony of probationary workers.
“With this recent statement that they had made, it seems they are contradicting their own disparagement of my proposal, as they are now admitting that employees are indeed terminated before the sixth-month period lapses, instead of being regularized,” Singson maintained.
“So, basically what my proposal is prolonging is clearly not the agony of the employee, but rather the continuous income stream of the employee beyond the six-month period,” he added.
Further, Singson explained that his proposed measure does not cover contractual, fix-term or seasonal employment and that there are no provisions in his bill stating that an employer cannot regularize a worker during the 24-month probationary period.
Citing the Republic Act 6727 or the Minimum Wage Law, Singson said that probationary employees are entitled to mandatory benefits under the Labor Code and special labor laws such as the SSS, Philhealth, and Pagibig, among others.
“By advocating to prolong a probationary employee’s employment, beyond the six-month period, I strongly believe that House Bill No. 4802 is definitely a pro-labor measure, that would alleviate the plight of our workers suffering from short term employment,” Singson said.
‘Wrong and abominable’
TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay, however, said Singson’s idea of security of tenure by extending the probationary period for workers is “wrong and abominable because it will worsen the current epidemic scale contractualization, modern-day labor slavery in the country.”
Tanjusay said Singson’s bill is only an “illusory kind of security of tenure.”
“With the 2-year probationary period, there will never be inclusive growth and the gap between the rich and the poor in the country will continue to widen causing upheaval and tension between higher and lower social class,” Tanjusay said in a statement to INQUIRER.net.
“We must provide security of tenure for as long as the company and the job exist after six months,” the labor group spokesperson added.
Moreover, Tanjusay claimed that Singson’s proposal is “dangerous because it will make the class war very visible and explicit.”
“What we are trying to do now is to do away if not lessen with the 6 months probationary period because this had been the root cause of abusive Endo, contractualization, and all short-fixed term employment that’s keeping the poor poor and the rich richer,” Tanjusay said.