Lawmaker alarmed over rising number of contractual workers in gov’t

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro. (FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — A party-list legislator has raised concern over the increasing number of contractual and job order employees in the government.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Rep. France Castro noted that 648,215 government workers were on contracts of service or job orders as of June 30. The figure was derived from the Inventory of Government Human Resources.

“Habang tumatagal, lalo lamang dumadami at lumalaganap ang kontraktwalisasyon sa loob ng gobyerno. Paano natin aasahan ang mga pribadong kumpanya na itigil ang ‘endo’ kung mismong gobyerno ay may malaking bahagi sa practice na ito?” Castro said in a statement Thursday.

(Government contractualization has been getting worse over the years. Given the government’s involvement in “endo,” it’s unrealistic to expect private businesses to halt it.)

She then mentioned that the Department of Social Welfare and Development employed a total of 15,811 personnel under contracts of service, including 420 job orders.

She also said the state’s People’s Television Network had hired 551 workers under contracts of service, which is four times more than its regular employees.

“Labor contractualization is a blatant violation of the worker’s right to security of tenure. Contractual workers do not have the security of tenure, have no or lower benefits, no social insurance protection, have no right to self-organization, no promotion opportunities, they have higher withholding taxes, and they often become targets of discrimination at work,” Castro said.

She noted that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. failed to address the issue of contractualization in both the private and public sectors.

“On top of the contractualization issue, the Philippine Statistics Authority revealed last June that there are at least 3 million jobless Filipinos. Without concrete plans to end contractualization, especially in government, what else can the people expect from the government in solving the widespread problem of lack of regular jobs?” Castro said.

“Labor contractualization, in all its forms, must be stopped and workers must be regularized in both the public and private sectors. Government must spearhead the end of this unjust practice by regularizing all its contractual workers, prohibiting and penalizing the hiring of contractual workers, and ensuring the security of tenure of workers in government,” she also said. —Catherine Dabu, INQUIRER.net trainee

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