Makabayan seeks probe into alleged contractualization practice in SBMA

The House Makabayan opposition bloc filed on Tuesday a resolution seeking to investigate the alleged rampant practice of contractualization and other violation of workers’ rights in the government-owned Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, ACT-Teachers Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro, Gabriela Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas, Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao, and Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago filed House Resolution 1916 a day after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) released the top 20 labor-only contracting companies in the Philippines.

READ: Jollibee tops DOLE list of labor-only contracting companies

According to the resolution, 50 percent of SBMA’s operation rely on contract service-hired workers.

The resolution said SBMA workers also “decry the questionable deductions and irregularities in the remittance of SSS contributions and income tax returns,” as well as problems in pension due to “unrecorded or lost employment record” under the Freeport Services Corp., the manpower agency of the SBMA.

“Beginning April 2018, the SBMA administration took initial steps on “streamlining its workforce supposedly in compliance with the joint resolution of the Civil Service Commission, Commission on Audit, and the Department of Budget and Management which states that Contract of Service workers are to be terminated by the 31st of December 2018,” the resolution reads.

“The general situation of Filipino workers in the Philippines is reflected on the workers of the SBMA. There is no security of tenure with worker’s rights vulnerable under the prevailing contractualization scheme, compounded by other government issuances and policies such as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) DO 174 and the CSC-COA-DBM Joint Circular No.1 s2017,” the militant lawmakers said.

What is worse though, they added, is that the SBMA is a government-owned and/or controlled corporation (GOCC) and “it should be the Duterte government that is supposedly spearheading the fight against ENDO (end of contract) and contractualization.”

“We hope that Congress can probe this matter immediately and not only would the workers be retained but they should be regularized as well,” they added. /vvp