Reforming contract employment in government

Nowadays, the word “labor” has lost most of its unionism sheen. It is being reshaped in history as part of a cordial partnership with management, two sides of a coin whose interests are not necessarily antagonistic, but cannot ignore the reality that one without the other is not possible.

Such transformation has been shaped by laws since the ‘70s that spell out the basic rights of workers, from wages to perks, all of which guarantee some form of dignity in living. Any decent human resource manager or consultant will always recommend that companies best stick to the basics of the law to keep peace in the workplace.

Of course, this doesn’t always translate to a harmonious relationship, especially when one or the other party attempts to breach some fine lines that needs the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to step in as arbiter. Big cases have been fewer, but there are those that occasionally do end up in court.

In recent years, the biggest issue has beem one of contractual labor, where workers do not have security of tenure. While the law generally respects the free will of a worker who agrees to provide a service for a fixed amount of time, such agreements tend to be lopsided in favor of the employer or contractor.

During the previous administration, a number of big companies that engaged in “endo” were forced to terminate such illegal contracts. Endo refers to employment agreements that skirt laws mandating employers to hire full-time workers who rendered more than six months of service.

While the furor on this has died down, the practice persists, especially in small companies. A business’ ability to secure long-term tenure of workers is most often associated with profitability, and if business conditions are not stable, illegal contracting is resorted to.

Such unfair contracting terms are stuff that DOLE often chooses to ignore, especially if workers don’t complain. Often, workers choose to keep silent, recognizing that not to do so could lead to their employer’s untimely closure of business. Often, the recourse is to wait until business conditions improve and stabilize.

Politics of contract work

Such an attitude, however, is not what keeps 600,000 contract workers of the Philippine government uncomplaining, sometimes for a lifetime. Under contract of service (COS), job order (JO) terms, and third party contract terms, workers in government carry on doing the jobs of full-time employees without the benefits of tenure and social protection.

Despite data showing that government contract workers are often not covered by the national health insurance program managed by the PhilHealth or are being asked to enroll as voluntary, self-paying members, they opt to stay on, reflective the strong patronage system of politics in the country.

Many government contract workers get their COSs or JOs on the strength of an incumbent politician’s discretion, which could be just for a minimum of three years or a maximum of nine years. But even when the politician loses his term of office after an election, some degree of clout remains whereby the contracted government employee is guaranteed another job. Then, there’s the hope that the politician gets re-elected another time.

Perhaps the biggest perk a government worker can look forward to is the possibility of getting consultancies on government projects without fear of being censured for double (or even triple) compensation. Often, these more than compensate for the absence of tenure and other benefits of permanent employment.

Hence, you see civil servants who clock in at 8 in the morning, then leave their desks to return at 5 in the afternoon to clock out. Here, such contractual government employees do not provide the service that they were hired to do.

This explains why there are over 170,000 vacancies in government that have remained unserved despite relaxed rules on hiring for government positions. Even if many of these contractual employees are eligible for civil service under civil service eligibility requirements, they are just plainly not interested.

For the government, COSs and JOs are seen as a way to bring down expenditures. Often constrained by the local government code in the allocation for budgets for personnel services, COSs and JOs allow local governments to fudge hiring under the more general description of “projects.”

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) is also complicit in allowing the perpetuation of contractual work to such a degree that this has become ridiculously laughable when compared to employment laws that the DOLE has had to enforce when dealing with the private sector.

Correcting the system

Unraveling the seeming injustice that hogs government service will not be easy, especially when the practice seems to be accepted by those who are regarded as being short-changed. If no one complains, who can say that justice needs to be served.

The Senate has been trying to correct the system, which has developed over the last three decades, but the absence of an in-depth study on the impact of growing contractual work in the government has not provided a basis for future action.

The bureaucracy has over 1.75 million people under direct employment terms, which currently makes up about three-fourths of the state machinery if you consider the 600,000 contract workers.

Are the savings that the national and local governments say they accrue by maintaining contract workers enough to compensate for the poor service that many Filipinos often complain of? Without good data, it will be hard to push for the right legislation that would put some order in what our government is currently undergoing. Definitely, it will be difficult to hope for a well-oiled government machinery that delivers the kind of dedicated service we yearn for for the country.

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