BAGUIO CITY—Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III disclosed recently some 50 percent of contractual employees in the different agencies, bureaus, government financial institutions and government-owned and-controlled corporations would be occupying permanent positions by the start of 2017.
This follows efforts of the Duterte administration to put an end to rampant contractualization in the bureaucracy.
Bello said all the pertinent works have been completed by the government agencies to make their contractual workers become regular starting next year.
“We might allow contractualization up to a certain extent but the contractual workers to be hired must be given their benefits to be able to enjoy the privileges that go with it.” Bello said.
Latest data show there are over 1.3-million regular workers in the different government line agencies while there are more or less 300,000 contractual workers hired but are performing the duties and responsibilities given to permanent employees.
Once all contractual workers in the national government agencies shall have been regularized as part of a lean and mean bureaucracy, Bello hoped local governments would be able to work out the regularization of their job order or contractual workers within the next several years.
Relative to the end-of-contract practice by private employers, Bello said said businesses already committed to stop the practice by yearend.
According to him, government agencies are doing their best to comply with the marching orders of President Rodrigo Duterte to put an end to the previous end-of-contract practice among the private sector and contractualization in the government to help workers enjoy the benefits of being regular workers.
That would also give them security in their jobs.
He added regional offices of the labor department were given the order to closely monitor the compliance of the private sector in stopping their end-of-contract practice to help establish stability in the provision of permanent and long-term jobs.
Bello warned erring members of the private sector who refuse to adhere to the government mandate they would receive stiffer penalties ranging from higher fines and the filing of charges against them for violation of the pertinent provisions of labor laws.
He called on the private sector to police their own ranks to avoid being penalized or charged for their refusal to regularize their contractual workers and cooperate with the government’s all-out war against end of contract practice.
