Solon pushes for master plan to support welfare of contractual workers
(FILE) Rep. Kristine Alexie Besas-Tutor gets a fresh term as congresswoman of Bohol’s third district. (Leo Udtohan/Inquirer Visayas)
TAGBILARAN CITY — Rep. Alexie Besas-Tutor of Bohol’s third district on Wednesday announced that a master plan is needed to address injustice and gradually reduce the number of contractuals and job order personnel in government.
“As I congratulate Civil Service Commission Chairman Karlo Alexei Nograles on his confirmation by the Commission on Appointments, I convey to him the sentiments of the House of Representatives on the disproportionately large numbers of contractuals and job order personnel at the national and local government levels,” said Tutor during the organizational meeting of the Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation in which she serves as chairman.
In the ongoing 2023 budget hearings, Tutor said her colleague at the House of Representatives repeatedly asked for clear paths toward the regularization of the over 493 thousand job order (JO) personnel and over 148 thousand contracts of service (COS) workers who are rendering valuable public service as of the latest count on June 30, 2022.
She noted that there are over 1.82 million career and non-career personnel in the civil service. The total number of permanent positions for 2023 is 1,943,1381, 1,772,4702 positions are filled and 170,668 items are unfilled.
“Compare that to the over 642 thousand JO and COS personnel, who do not have the security of tenure and do not have full benefits, including the 13th-month pay and bonuses, but do much of the heavy lifting while their regularized counterparts have much easier work days,” said Tutor.
“We need a master plan that addresses this injustice over the next five years. I am hopeful Chairman Karlo Nograles will be up to this challenge,” she added.
Tutor also cited as an example the situation in the Department of Health (DOH), where many of her colleagues in the health professions are working.
She said there are 91,480 regular positions in the DOH, but only 70,442 are filled. Therefore, there are 21,038 unfilled or vacant positions.
“Given the immense challenges facing the public health sector, these over 21 thousand vacant positions are mind-boggling, but the DOH continues to hire thousands of job orders and contract service personnel. The latest count shows DOH has 8,188 JO/COS workers, ” she said.
A real, sustainable, fundable, and just path is needed to regularize qualified employees among the over 642,000 JO/COS personnel consistent with fair Qualifications Standards and the Philippine Qualifications Framework.
Of the JO/COS workers, those serving in local governments are 487,149 while those in national government agencies, state universities and colleges (SUCs), local water districts, and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) reached 154,928.
The numbers, Tutor said, still do not include the hundreds of thousands of volunteers in the ranks of the barangay health workers, sanitation personnel, barangay tanods, street sweepers, and deputized Bantay Dagat.
“It seems therefore that at least three sets of solutions are needed: one for LGUs, one for the non-government associations (NGAs) /SUCs/learners with disabilities (LWDs) /GOCCs, and one for the volunteers,” she said.
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