Some labor groups on Friday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to regularize thousands of government contractual workers before the end of his term this month.
The group Courage and Kawani Laban sa Kontraktwalisasyon (Kalakon) fear in their protest action in Quezon City Circle that many will lose their government jobs in the next administration.
According to Courage National President Santiago Dasmariñas, the contracts of job order employees in the government and Duterte’s term will end on June 30.
They have a call to Duterte to save their jobs.
“May solusyon pa, kaya ang panawagan namin kay Ginoong Duterte, ang kanyang mga sinabi na ENDO, tapusin na ang kontraktwalisasyon kaya nga po magpalabas siya ng isang executive order kung saan sinasabi sa EO na ang halos 600,000 jobs at contract servers ay gawin na niyang regular, meaning contractual itigil na gawin na silang regular,” said Dasmariñas.
It is said that with the entry of the new administration, the leaders of every government office are also new and are in danger of replacing only the current job orders and contractual workers.
In addition, they are also asking for the national minimum wage to be raised to P25,000 for all government employees, including job orders and contract workers.
They also appealed to President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. on the same issues.
Regularization of contractual gov’t workers urged
“Hinahamon [namin] si Bongbong Marcos na gawing regular ang kontraktwal sa panahon niya, para mabago ang kaming kalagayan ng employer-employee relationship na walang benepisyong natatanggap, na walang 13 month pay, walang SSS walang Philhealth at Pag-IBIG at walang leave,” said Roxanne Fernandez of Kalakon.
Malacañang has yet to respond to labor groups’ grievances.
One of Duterte’s campaign promises was to end ENDO or end of contract, but in 2019, the President vetoed the proposal.
According to the President, he wanted to balance the interests of workers and employers, so he vetoed the proposal.
He added that legitimate job contracting should still be allowed if it can provide benefits to workers in accordance with the law.
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