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

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No. 2623

Introduced by

REP. RAYMOND DEMOCRITO C. MENDOZA
Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP PARTYLIST)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The problem of lack of security of tenure or “endo” of workers in the private sector which
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has promised to end is also a problem of the public sector
workers. In fact the private sector employers have repeatedly raised the existence of ‘double
standards” and “unfairness” with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) enforcing
compliance with Constitutional guarantee on security of tenure and right to self-organization
while national government agencies (NGAs) including DOLE, local government units (LGUs),
state universities and colleges (SUCs), government owned and controlled corporations
(GOCCs), government financial institutions (GFis), Congress, judiciary and the Constitutional
bodies are not complying on the pretext that by law, there are only two (2) ways of becoming a
public employees — by appointment or by election. Hence, hired personnel in government
service are not government employees and has no security of tenure. They are workers in the
government but with no employer. Their job contracts has stipulation providing the absence of
employer-employee relationship with the office that hires, pays their wages, disciplines and
exercises control on the manner and method of carrying out their work.

The non-employees in the government service are the 660,390 job orders (JOs), contract of
service (COS), or Memorandum Order or Understanding (MOU) personnel as indicated in the
2017 CSC Inventory of Government Human Resources (IGHR). This is an increased of 65,228
personnel from 595,162 in 2016. Their contract provides that there is no employer-employee
relationship with the agency/office that hired them despite repeated hiring or working in the
agency/office for five (5) years or more.

In the 2017 IGHR, the bulk of the 660,390 JOs/COS can be found in the Local Government
Units (LGUs) with 463,551 personnel, the National Government Agencies (NGAs) comes
second with 120,273, Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs), State
Universities and Colleges (SUCs), and the Local Water Districts (LWDs) have 36,249; 31,639;
and 8,678 JOs/COS personnel, respectively. The 2017 IGHR also indicated 96,456 casual and
39,578 contractual employees. In sum, almost a million public sector employees or 796,424 to
be exact are in insecure work arrangements in various sectors of the government.

Contractualization in the government is a serious problem. This affects the quality of public
service, proliferation of political patronage system and corruption. But the CSC-DBM-COA Joint
Circular No. 1, Series of 2017, offered solutions are proven problems in the private sector.
Individual contracting as the work arrangement until 2020 does not address the vulnerability of
the employees, exploitations and the lack of security of tenure neither would the use of
contractors/agency supplied workers.

It is incumbent upon the Government to be the model in promoting decent work and job
security. Social justice must be observed by the Government as an employer and the
Constitutional guarantee on security of tenure, full protection and full employment sacrosanct.

In views af tha faranninn the naceane nf thie Rill ie aamectiy enniaht


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

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No._2623

Introduced by
REP. RAYMOND DEMOCRITO C. MENDOZA
‘Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP PARTYLIST)

AN ACT
PROVIDING CIVIL SERVICE ELIGIBILITY AND PERMANENT APPOINTMENT TO
ALL GOVERNMENT CASUAL AND CONTRACTUAL EMPLOYEES UNDER JOB
ORDERS, CONTRACT OF SERVICE, MEMORANDUM OF
AGREEMENT/MEMORANDUM ORDER OR UNDERSTANDING AND OTHER
SIMILAR CONTRACTS WHO HAVE RENDERED AT LEAST FIVE (5) YEARS OF
OUTSTANDING GOVERNMENT SERVICE

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

Section 1. Declaration of Policy. The State upholds the Constitutional guarantee
on the right to security of tenure of all workers in private and public sectors and shall
afford full employment opportunity, social protection and decent work to public sector
employees.

Section 2. Coverage. - Subject to the provisions of the Constitution and applicable
civil service laws, rules and regulations, all incumbent casual and contractual
government employees in the first and second levels who have rendered at least five
(5) years of continuous and very satisfactory government service as of the date of
approval of this Act shall be considered civil service eligible and be provided
permanent appointment to the current or similar position or posting; Provided, that
continuous service shall mean repeated contract engagement whether for long or
short duration at intervals of not more than one (1) year; Provided further, that very
satisfactory government service rating shall be for at least two (2) consecutive
performance evaluation cycle based on approved performance standards set.
Contractual government employees shall refer to those engaged as Job Orders


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(JOs), Contract of Service (COS), Memorandum of Agreement or Understanding and
similar contracts.

Section 3. Implementing Rules and Regulations. The Civil Service Commission,
with full participation of public sector confederations or organizations, shall issue the
Implementing Rules and Regulations for this Act within ninety (90) days after
approval of this Act.

Section 4. Separability Clause. |f, for any reason, part of this Act shall be rendered
unconstitutional or invalid, other parts or provisions hereof which are not thereby
affected shall continue to be in effect and full force.

Section 5. Repealing Clause. All orders, rules and regulations, issuances or any
part thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed,
amended or modified accordingly.

Section 6. Effectivity Clause. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after
publication in the Official Gazette or in at least (2) newspapers of general circulation.

Approved,