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Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Batasan Hills, Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

2102
HOUSE BILL No.“

Introduced by
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,
BAYAN MUNA Party-List Rep. CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE,
Rep. FERDINAND GAITE and Rep. EUFEMIA C. CULLAMAT,
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. SARAH JANE |. ELAGO

AN ACT
PROHIBITING THE HIRING OF TEACHERS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR THROUGH
CONTRACTS OF SERVICE OR JOB ORDERS

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The practice of hiring public school teachers and higher education teaching
personnel on contracts of service or job orders is all too common. Local
governments, the Department of Education (DepEd), and public higher education
institutions resort to this practice primarily to deal with growing student enrolments
in the context of acute shortages of regular teaching items funded by the national

budget.

Contract of service or service contract refers to the engagement by a
government agency of the services of a person to undertake a specific work or job
requiring special or technical skills not available in the agency, to be accomplished
within a specific period not exceeding one year. Job order refers to a contract
whereby a worker is hired by a government agency to do piece work or an
intermittent job of short duration not exceeding six (6) months, and paid on a daily
or hourly basis.

While successes have been made in the regularization of teachers—and
therefore reduction of teachers job orders and contracts of service—in basic


education, there are still currently a number of them hired in such a manner,
working at all levels of our public education system. Local governments still hire
service contract teachers to augment the teachers in basic education within their
jurisdictions, whether in the schools under DepEd or the local governments.
According to the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, job order,
service contract, “emergency faculty,” and similar hiring arrangements are still
prevalent in SUCs, which are forced to do so due to the shortage in their teaching
staff, which stood at 17,057 in 2016. A significant portion of these are on contracts
of service or job orders even though they perform the same tasks as regular faculty.

Having no employer-employee relationship with the institutions that hired
them, teachers on contracts of service or job orders experience exploitative and
discriminatory compensation, benefits, and working conditions. Although possessing
the same qualifications as their regularly-employed counterparts, they receive lower
pay, enjoy none of the benefits, have no job security, and are deprived of their right
to unionize. Locally-paid teachers earn as little as ®5,000 per month, while university
instructors on contracts of service or job orders typically earn around ®8,500 a
month. They are also denied benefits such as Personnel Economic Relief Allowance
(PERA), Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), Representation and Transportation
Allowance (RATA), mid-year bonus, productivity incentive, Christmas bonus and cash
gifts, and the social security coverage provided by the Government Service Insurance
System and PhilHealth. Having no security of tenure, they are often rehired on the
same terms, year in and year out.

Hiring teachers through contracts of service or job orders is contrary to Article
XIV, Sec. 5 (5) of the 1987 Constitution which mandates that “the State shall...ensure
that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents
through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.”
It also violates existing laws, including Republic Act 4670 (The Magna Carta of Public
School Teachers) which is intended to protect the status of the teaching profession
and the provisions of Presidential Decree 442 or the Labor Code on regular
employment.

This bill prohibits the hiring of teachers at all levels through contracts of
service or job orders to carry out the duties and functions of regular teaching staff,
with the exception of faculty in post-secondary education institutions where the
required highly specialized or technical expertise cannot be provided by the regular
teaching staff. This measure also imposes the administrative sanction of dismissal
from the public service with cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement
benefits, and the perpetual disqualification for reemployment in the government
service on any government official or employee who violates said prohibition.


Approval of this bill is earnestly sought.

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Rep. FERDINAND GAITE
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Rep. EUFEMIA C. CULLAMAT ARIENE D. BROSAS
BAYAN MUNA Party-List

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Rep. SARAH JANE |. ELAGO
KABATAAN Party-List


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Batasan Hills, Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

2102
HOUSE BILLNo.

Introduced by
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,
BAYAN MUNA Party-List Rep. CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE,
Rep. FERDINAND GAITE and Rep. EUFEMIA C. CULLAMAT,
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. SARAH JANE I. ELAGO

AN ACT
PROHIBITING THE HIRING OF TEACHERS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR THROUGH
CONTRACTS OF SERVICE OR JOB ORDERS

Be it enacted in the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Definitions. Contract of service or service contract refers to the
engagement by a government agency of the services of a person to undertake a
specific work or job requiring special or technical skills not available in the agency, to
be accomplished within a specific period not exceeding one (1) year.

Job order refers to a contract whereby a worker is hired by a government
agency to do piece work or intermittent job of short duration not exceeding six (6)
months, and paid on a daily or hourly basis.

In either case, the contracts do not establish an employer-employee
relationship, services rendered are not considered government service, and the
worker therefore does not enjoy the benefits enjoyed by government employees,
such as Personnel Economic Relief Allowance, Cost of Living Allowance,
Representation and Transportation Allowance, mid-year bonus, productivity
incentive, Christmas bonus, and cash gifts.


For purposes of this Act, contracts of service and job orders shall
include similar arrangements, regardless of designation, where no employer-
employee relationship exists between the hiring agency and the worker.

SECTION 2. Coverage. This Act shall apply to teachers employed in public schools in
the kindergarten, elementary, and secondary levels, as well as in public post-
secondary education institutions, including State Universities and Colleges (SUCs),
Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs), and technical-vocational schools.

SECTION 3. Prohibition. No teacher shall be hired to carry out the duties and
functions of regular teaching staff, either on a full-time or part-time basis, through
contracts of service or job orders. Provided, that post-secondary education
institutions requiring teachers with highly specialized or technical expertise, which
cannot be provided by their regular teaching staff, are exempt from the prohibition
on contracts of service.

SECTION 4. Administrative Liability. Any government official or employee who
violates the previous section shall be dismissed from the service with cancellation of
eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and the perpetual disqualification for
reemployment in the government service.

SECTION 5. Implementing Rules and Regulations. The Department of Education,
Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority, and Department of Bydget and Management shall issue implementing
rules and regulations within thirty (30) days from the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 6. Repealing Clause. All laws, decrees, resolutions, orders, or ordinances
or parts thereof inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed, amended or modified
accordingly.

SECTION 7. Effective Date. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or in one newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,