GOVERNMENT may force companies to extend “pro-rated” benefits to temporary employees as a compromise to employers’ hiring practice of “endo.”
In a budget hearing at the Senate on Wednesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director General Ernesto M. Pernia defined endo as the termination of an employee after only five months of working for a particular firm. The practice allows companies not to extend benefits, such as Christmas bonus, to employees.
“That [extending regular employee benefits to temporary workers] in itself would discourage employers, like in retail, like in department stores,” Pernia said. “It would discourage big players from practicing endo.”
“Contractualization is something that is universal [and] practiced all over the world, because many jobs are seasonal,” Pernia added. “We cannot make them [temps] permanent.”
During the hearing, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said hiring people on a contractual basis is practiced in agriculture and in the media.
Dominguez noted that temporary workers in the farm sector are needed to clear irrigation canals, while media agencies employ so-called talents, such as news writers, producers and others.
Sens. Loren B. Legarda and Risa Hontiveros agreed, saying they, too, were contractual workers at one point in their lives as media workers.
Sen. Joel Villanueva, meanwhile, raised concerns about the government’s own contractual workers. He noted even the Department of Public Works and Highways has 20,000 job orders, which is equivalent to the number of temporary workers the government agency has.
Villanueva added that there are government workers who have been working in their respective departments and/or agencies for years performing regular jobs but remained contractual.
In response, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) are formulating guidelines on job orders.
Diokno also said the Duterte administration plans to push for the proposal of a “right sizing bill” that seeks to absorb deserving temporary workers in their respective agencies.
He explained the bill seeks to be a comprehensive proposal aiming to “right size” the entire government bureaucracy.
“The DBM will submit [the proposal] to the Senate and the House this week or the next,” Diokno said.
In 2014 Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed over a million Filipino workers did not hold regular positions in their companies.
Based on the Statistics on Non-Regular Workers, the PSA said 1.336 million workers were considered nonregular employees in 2014.
This represented some 29.9 percent of all 4.472 million workers employed in establishments with 20 or more workers.
Nonregular workers are composed of contractual or project-based workers, probationary workers, casual employees, seasonal employees and apprentices and/or learners.
Pernia told lawmakers that Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III shares his opinion that companies wanting to continue practicing endo should provide pro-rated benefits to these workers.