Ending Endo: the hypocrisy

Gregorio Miguel Pallugna

THE hypocrisy of government is sometimes beyond imagination. Take for one, the labor secretary’s promise to end “endo” or contractualization in the year 2017. Endo’s or end-of-contract employment is the five-month contractual employment of workers intended to avoid regularization which will give rise to their entitlement to security of tenure and regular labor benefits. It is a scheme to reduce employer costs at the expense of the employees. All of us are either directly affected or, at least, know someone who is affected by the abuse of contractualization, and it should definitely be stopped immediately.

Labor Secretary Bello promised to end it by this year. That is one of the eight-point agenda of the labor department, and one of the campaign promises of our president. It is a great promise and a praiseworthy ambition.

Ironically, however, the government is also one of the employers of so-called “job order” employees or “JOs” who receive no labor benefits and have no security of tenure. According to the Civil Service Commission, JOs are government workers who perform “pakyaw” or intermittent or emergency jobs such as clearing of debris on the roads, canals, waterways, etc. After natural/man-made disasters, and other manual trades and crafts services such as carpentry, plumbing, electrical and the like. These jobs are of short duration and for a specific piece of work. Clearly, that is not how most government agencies interpret the term JOs. At present, we know that JOs are poor government workers who are paid below the minimum wage in order to perform work intended for regular employees and are expected to report from eight to five or even beyond these hours.

My client has been working for a local government hospital for 16 years already. She reports to work eight hours everyday, and wears the hospital uniform. For 16 years, she has rendered invaluable service to the government but when she retires she gets nothing because she is not a member of the GSIS. She is a mere “job order” employee, and she is not the only one. All over the country, government agencies, GOCCs, and local government units hire hundreds of thousands of JOs. The government is practically the biggest labor violator.

In fairness to the Civil Service Commission, it has attempted to correct this mistake by issuing Joint Circular No. 1, Series of 2017, together with the COA and DBM, which regulates the employment of contract services and job order workers in government. The circular limits the hiring of JOs to those intermittent and short-term jobs mentioned above, and it prohibits any agency from having JOs perform any work which is covered within the job description of a regular position. Also, it imposes an administrative sanction upon the head of office or agency who violates the provisions of this circular. Sounds good enough, if implemented properly. But there is a catch.

The circular says further that the government offices and agencies may still continue to hire new JOs or renew existing JO contracts until the end of year 2018. Implementation will actually begin only in 2019. So, endo cannot wait and must be abolished before 2017 ends, but the improper JO employment in government can apparently be postponed until 2019. Finally, it must be noted that the joint circular expressly says that it shall apply only to national government agencies, GOCCs with original charters and state colleges and universities. LGUs are therefore still allowed to continue hiring JOs in their present status until kingdom come. Good news for them!

Sometimes, we have to wonder what the real objective of government is. Our government authorities should review these kinds of issuances and ensure that there is integrity in the efforts being done by government to implement the law and the constitution. Ending contractualization will be one of the greatest achievements of this administration if they will be able to deliver that promise, but it can only be meaningful if it is abolished on all fronts, including and most specially the government service.