Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No,_ 1024

Introduced by GABRIELA Women's Party List
Representative Liza Largoza-Maza, Anak Pawis Party List Representatives
Crispin B. Beltran and Rafael V. Mariano, and Bayan Muna Party List
Representatives Satur C. Ocampo, Teodoro A. Casino and Joel G. Virador

EXPLANATORY NOTE

For a number of decades now, the Philippine labor force is made to bear the
excruciating cost of underdevelopment and backwardness.

Existing anti-people economic policies, the lack of genuine agrarian reform and
nationalist industrialization programs perpetuate the economic crisis. The onslaught of
globalization has given rise to high rates of unemployment and underemployment.

Through the years, an average of 10 percent of the labor force remains jobless
while underemployment rates have progressively increased reaching 16.6 percent by
October 2001.

Those who are employed, meanwhile, have to struggle with sorely inadequate
legislated minimum daily wages and, to a large extent, with substandard labor conditions.

Unemployment, underemployment and substandard labor conditions have pushed
over eight million Filipinos, many of them women, to leave their families and endure
contract work overseas. As such, the Philippines is the world's largest exporter of labor for
the last 10 years.

In recent years, labor's plight worsened as a significant number of workers are left
with no choice but to work under employment terms and conditions that do not afford full
rights, especially security of tenure. -

Violations of the employees’ right to security of tenure are reported to be prevalent
in export-oriented industries and wholesale «1nd retail businesses where contractualization
and labor-only contracting under different guises continue to be the rule more than the
exception.

For example, ninety percent of the approximately 20,000 workers in Shoe Mart
(SM) branches nationwide. most of them sale:s ladies and store personnel, are reported to
be employed as contractual hired on a five-month contract basis. This circumvents the
Labor Code provision granting regular employment status after a probationary
employment period of six months.

Furthermore, unscrupulous employers have resorted to other devious schemes to
subvert employees’ right to security of tenure and other labor rights.


One thousand workers in Mode International, for instance, -again, a great majority
of them women --are allegedly made to join “workers cooperatives". In this way, Mode
International, makers and exporters of clothes and garments bearing the Osh Kosh, GAP,
Girbaud and Tommy Hillfiger brand names, is not bound by an enployer-employee
relationship with "members" of the "workers' cooperatives". Such “workers” of Mode
International are then outside the coverage of whatever limited protection afforded to
regular workers by the Labor Code.

Individual and organized workers, with concemed groups and sectors, continue to
address contractualization. The Koalisyon Laban sa Kontraktwalisasyon (KLK) or
Coalition Against Contractualization, composed of organizations including the GABRIELA,
Kilusang Mayo Uno, Kilusan ng Manggagawang Kababaihan, Sandigan ng mga
Manggagawa sa Shoe Mart, Samahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Mode International,
MIGRANTE, COURAGE and Workers Assistance Center vowed to uphold workers’ rights
and welfare.

The KLK believes that while the full realization of workers’ rights can only be
achieved under a genuine democratic and nationalist social structure, legislative
measures such as the instant bill will hopefully afford the workers some respite from
globalization strategies and schemes --such as contractualization and flexibilization --that
undermine the workers' right to security of tenure.

It is in this view and in support of such initiatives that the passage of this bill is
eamestly urged. :

ba bya"

A Women’s Party List



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

1024

House Bill No.

Introduced by GABRIELA Women's Party List
Representative Liza Largoza-Maza, Anak Pawis Party List Representatives
Crispin B. Beltran and Rafael V. Mariano, and Bayan Muna Party List
Representatives Satur C. Ocampo, Teodoro A. Casino and Joel G. Virador

AN ACT STRENGTHENING THE RIGHT TO SECURITY OF TENURE, PROVIDING
PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS THEREOF, AMENDING PERTINENT PORTIONS
OF THE LABOR CODE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

WHEREAS, anti-people economic policies and the lack of genuine agrarian reform and
nationalist industrialization programs perpetuate the economic crisis, thus giving rise to
high rates of unemployment and underemployment, which in tum make workers
vulnerable to violations of rights, including the right to security of tenure;

WHEREAS, the current state of the law affords some protection to the gains achieved
by the workers' mass movement in connection with their right to security of tenure;

WHEREAS, in particular, the Constitution provides that:

Article Il. Section 9. The State shall promote a just and dynamic social
order that will ensure the prosperity and independence of the nation and
free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social
services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an
improved quality of life.

Section 10. The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national
development.

Section 18. The State affirms labor as primary social economic force. It
Shall protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare.

Article Xill. Section 1. The Congress shall give highest priority to the
enactment of measures that protect and enhance the right of all the people
to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and
remove cultural inequalities by equitably diffusing wealth and political
power for the common good.

To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and
disposition of property and its increments.

Section 3. The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and
overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full employment and
equality of employment opportunities for all.


It shall guarantee the rights of all workers to self-organization, collective
bargaining and negotiation, and peaceful concerted activities, including
the right to strike in accordance with law.

They shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work,
and a living wage. They shall also participate in policy and decision-
making processes affecting their rights and benefits as may be provided by
law. xxx.

WHEREAS, the prevalent practices and schemes implemented by unscrupulous
employers effectively circumvent and subvert employees’ right to security of tenure and
other rights;

WHEREAS, violations of the employees' right to security of tenure are prevalent in
industries and businesses where the overwhelming majority of the employees are women,
‘such as garments, retail and the like;

WHEREAS, there is a.need to enact laws to strengthen employees’ right to security of
tenure and prevent scheme’ aimed at subverting said right;

WHEREAS, apprenticeship and leamership programs are rendered useless
considering the absence of genuine industriaization to absorb the large number of
unemployed skilled
workforce; Moreover, apprenticeship and leamership programs are being used to subvert
‘employee's right to security of tenure;

WHEREFORE, be it enacted, as it is hereby enacted, AN ACT STRENGTHENING
THE RIGHT TO SECURITY OF TENURE, PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR
VIOLATIONS THEREOF, AMENDING PERTINENT PORTIONS OF THE LABOR
CODE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

SECTION 1. This Act shall be known as the "Strengthening the Right to Security of
Tenure Act of 2001 ". ¥
SECTION 2. Articles 57 to 77 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, referring to
Apprentices and Learners, are hereby repealed.
SECTION 3. Article 280 of the Labor Code is hereby amended as follows:

ARTICLE 280- REGULAR EMPLOYMENT

IN THE ABSENCE OF A_WRITTEN- AGREEMENT, AN
EMPLOYMENT SHALL BE DEEMED REGULAR FROM THE TIME
OF ITS COMMENCEMENT. The provisions of written agreement to
the contrary notwithstanding and regardless of the oral agreement
of the parties AS WELL AS ITS ACTUAL OR AGREED PERIOD,
an employment shall be deemed to be regular FROM ITS
COMMENCEMENT where the employee has been engaged to
perform activities BY THE EMPLOYER WHETHER OR NOT SUCH
ACTIVITIES are usually necessary or desirable in. the usual
business or trade or the employer, except where the employment
has been fixed for a specific project or undertaking the completion
or termination of which has been determined at the time of the
engagement of the employee or the work or services to be
performed is seasonal in nature and the employment is for the
duration of the season. THE PROJECT OR UNDERTAKING MUST
BY ITS NA TURE BE FOR A FIXED PERIOD SUCH AS IN THE
CASE OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS AND SPECIALIZED
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING SERVICES. THE CONTRACTUAL



EMPLOYEE SHALL BE ENTITLED TO ALL RIGHTS AND
PRIVILEGES OF A REGULAR EMPLOYEE DURING THE
PROJECT OR UNDERT AKING.

SPECIFIC PROJECTS AND UNDERTAKINGS FOR A
FIXED PERIOD AS REFERRED TO IN THIS ARTICLE SHALL
NOT INCLUDE ACTIVITIES IN ENTERPRISES ENGAGED IN
SERVICE, RETAIL, MANUFACTURING, EXPORT AND SIMILAR
ACTIVITIES;

SECTION 4. Article 279 of the Labor Code is hereby amended as follows:

ART 279. The employer shall not terminate the services of an
employee except for just cause or when authorized by this Title. An
employee who is dismissed from work WITHOUT JUST OR
AUTHORIZED CAUSE shall be entitled to reinstatement without loss of
seniority rights and other privileges and to full backwages, inclusive of
allowances, and to other benefits or their monetary equivalent computed
from the time compensation was withheld up to the time of his OR HER
actual reinstatement, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT THE
ILLEGALLY-TERMINATED EMPLOYEE WAS EMPLOYED ELSEWHERE
DURING THE SAID PERIOD.

AN EMPLOYEE WHO IS DISMISSED FOR JUST OR
AUTHORIZED CAUSE BUT WITHOUT DUE PROCESS, OR AN
EMPLOYEE LEGALLY DISMISSED, SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO
REINSTATEMENT, BUT THE EMPLOYER SHALL BE LUffiLE TO PAY
TO SAID EMPLOYEE ALL OTHER BENEFITS, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO SEPARATION PAY IN THE AMOUNT CORRESPONDING
TO ONE MONTH SALARY FOR EVERY YEAR OF SERVICE BUT IN NO
CASE LOWER THAN ONE MONTH SALARY.

SECTION 5. Article 281 of the Labor Code, referring to Probationary Employment,
is hereby repealed. Probationary and casual employment are hereby declared Megal.

SECTION 6. Any person violating the provisions of this Act or the rules and
regulations issued pursuant thereto shall, upon conviction, be punished as follows:

a) By a fine of not less than One Hundred Thousand Pesos
(P100,000.00), but not more than’ Five Hundred Thousand Pesos
(P500,000.00), Gr imprisonment for not less than six (6) months
and one (1) day but not more than one (1)"year, or both, for an
employer who refuses or fails to grant his or her employee any of
the rights provided for in this law, including, but not limited to the
granting or recognition of, the regular employment status of
employee;

b) By a fine of not less than Two Hundred Thousand Pesos
(P200,000.00), but not more than Seven Hundred Thousand Pesos
(P700,000.00), or imprisonment for not less than six (6) years and
one (1) day but not more than twelve (12) years, or both, for an
employer who illegally terminates his or her employee;

The institution of any criminal action under this Act shall not bar the aggrieved party
from filini an independent action for reinstatement, money claims, which may include
claims for damages, and other affirmative relief.



If the offender is a juridical person, its license, permit and/or registration shall
immediately be revoked. Its officers shall be held criminally liable pursuant to the next
preceding paragraph.

Any alien found guilty under this Act shall be summarily deported upon payment of
fines and/or completion of sentence, and shall be permanently barred from re-entering the
country.

SECTION 7. The Secretary of Labor and Employment shall, within thirty (30) days
after the effectivity of this Act, promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to
implement the provisions hereof.

SECTION 8. Repealing Clause. All laws, presidential decrees, executive orders
and rules and regulations, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are
hereby repealed.

SECTION 9. Separability Clause. If any section or provision of this Article is held
unconstitutional or invalid, the validity of other sections herein shall not be affected
thereby. .

SECTION 10. Effectivity. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

APPROVED.