Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

248

HOUSE BILL No.

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

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR SECURITY OF TENURE AND GRANTING SUBSTITUTE
CIVIL SERVICE ELIGIBILITY FOR ALL NON-REGULAR AND REGULAR
EMPLOYEES OF THE GOVERNMENT WHO HAVE RENDERED AT LEAST SIX
(6) MONTHS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Social justice demands that the State provide full protection to labor including
entitlement to security of tenure.

The 1987 Constitution upholds the full protection to labor. Section 3 of Article XIII
States that, “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.”
Likewise, all workers “shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a
living wage.”

President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to stop the practice of “endo” or labor
contractualization. Yet, three (3) years into the Duterte presidency, labor contractualization has
worsened and become even more widespread, both in the private and public sectors.

In the public sector, according to the Inventory of Government Human Resources as of
‘August 22, 2017, there are 660,390 contract of service (COS), job orders (JOs), personnel out of
the 2,420,892 government employees. This figure is more than twice the 282,586 contractual


workers in the public sector in 2008'. Top agencies in 2017 with most number of JOs and COS
include the DSWD, DOH, DepEd, Judicial offices, DOJ, and DENR’.

Contractualization is so prevalent that non-regular workers comprise a
of the government’s workforce. From around 10% non-regular employees in the 1990s, the
contractuals comprise more than 31% of the government employees in 2016.

In the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) alone in 2013, contractual
workers comprise 20,840 out of the total 25,589 employees, or 81.44% of the agency workforce.

In the country’s premier public tertiary school, University of the Philippines, in 2012,
44% of the employees are contractual’. In the University of the Philippines - Philippine General
Hospital as of January 2018, 1,614 out of 4,461 health workers or 36.18%, are contractual, job-
order, casual or temporary workers’.

Labor contractualization blatantly violates the worker's right to security of tenure. Many
of the contractual workers have worked for 20 years or more and were made to perform regular
agency functions, yet were never regularized.

Aside from having no security of tenure, contractual workers have no or lower benefits,
no social insurance protection, no right to self-organization, no promotion opportunities, have
higher withholding taxes, and become targets of discrimination at work.

‘The Civil Service Commission, Commission on Audit, and Department of Budget and
Management followed suit with the issuance of Joint Circular No. 1, s. 2017 on June 15, 2017,
amended into Joint Circular No. 1, s. 2018, on the “Rules and Regulations Governing Contract
of Service and Job Order Workers in the Government.” Like the Department of Labor
Department Order 174-16 which widely criticized by workers, Joint Circular No. 1 further
legitimizes labor contractualization and provides no guarantee for the security of tenure for non-
regular workers in the public sector.

‘The Joint Circular stressed that JOs and COS workers in government agencies have no
employee-employer relationship thus have no right to any benefit for government employees.
‘This is despite the court ruling on the MWSS-COS employees case in June 30, 2005 that JOs and
COS workers are de-facto employees of the government’. Worse, the circular provides that
starting from the year 2019 government agencies may only avail of outsource services through
institutional contract of service or subcontracting.

+ COURAGE, et |, Praymer Hinggil sa Kontraktwalisasyon Booklet pdf, July 2017.

2 (GHR Manual FY2017 as of August 31.pdf

5 COURAGE, Inventory of Government Human Resources 2016.xIs (Reencoded), March 2018.

+ Data from UP Academic Employees Union, 2012.

5 Data from AUPWU-UP-PGH, 2018.

©G,R, 154472 Lopez vs. MWSS as cited by COURAGE et al, Praymer Hinggil sa Kontraktwalisasyon Booklet.pdf, July 2017


‘Aside from contractualization, non-regular employees need to hurdle the civil service
cligibility requirement as provided for in Executive Order No 292 or the Revised Administrative
Code of 1987.

Many more regular employees have no civil service eligibilities despite having rendered
years and even decades of continuous service. Many were hired prior to the institutionalization
of the civil service requirements, or were hired in positions not requiring civil service eligibility.
‘These employees have no opportunity for promotions to higher positions requiring civil service
ity, despite years of service, meritorious performance or mastery of their tasks. This results
to low morale especially among those who have dedicated their productive years working in the
government yet were never qualified for any promotions.

Labor contractualization, in all its forms, must be stopped and workers regularized in
both private and public sector. The government must set a good example by regularizing all its
contractual workers, prohibiting and penalizing the hiring of contractuals, and ensuring the
security of tenure of workers in government service.

This bill aims to prohibit all forms of labor contractualization in the public sector. It
provides for security of tenure for non-regular employees. Further it grants civil service eligibility
for all regular and non-regular employees who have worked continuously in the government for
at least six (6) months.

‘There is an urgent need to correct the long suffering and injury wrought by the
government itself to the government workers.

Passage of this bill, thus, is earnestly sought.


REF. FERDINAND R. GAITE
BAYAN MUNA Partylist

on Rasa

BAYAN MUNA Partylist

: D. BROSAS
;ABRIF4.A Women’s Party

REP. EYFEMIA C. CULLAMAT

BAYAN MUNA Partylist



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

248
HOUSE BILL No.

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

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR SECURITY OF TENURE AND GRANTING SUBSTITUTE
CIVIL SERVICE ELIGIBILITY FOR ALL NON-REGULAR AND REGULAR
EMPLOYEES OF THE GOVERNMENT WHO HAVE RENDERED AT LEAST SIX
(6) MONTHS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE

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

SECTION 1. Title. This Act shall be known and cited as the “Security of Tenure and Civil
Service Eligibility for Non-Regular and Regular Employees in Government Act.”

SECTION 2. Declaration of Policy. Government workers, being vital components of the
State’s human resources, shall be afforded their constitutional rights to security of tenure, living
wage, full employment and employment opportunities. No agency or instrumentality of
government shall prevent the acquisition by any government worker of these rights through
various short term but repeated contractual agreements whereby workers are hired for work
performed by regular employees. Government workers shall be accorded security of tenure and
afforded all opportunities to exercise their constitutionally-guaranteed right to organization and
collective bargaining.

SECTION 3. Prohibition of Contractualization in Government Service. All forms of labor
contractualization including casual work, job-order, contract of service, subcontracting,
outsourcing, labor-only contracting and agency hiring, shall be prohibited in all government
agencies and instrumentalities. All workers shall be treated as regular employees.

SECTION 4. Security of Tenure for Non-Regular Government Employees. All employees
and workers covered by this Act are hereby granted security of tenure and may not be separated
or terminated from the positions they are currently holding except for just or lawful cause and
with due process of law. All positions affected by this Act currently held by the covered
employees and workers shall be deemed necessary and desirable for the efficient operation of the


government, including all the national government agencies, LGUs, SUCs, GOCCs and all
other government instrumentalities, and, shall not be considered as coterminus with the
incumbent.

Nothing in this Act shall prevent the creation of a sufficient number of personnel required by
the agency or instrumentality for this purpose, all agencies and instrumentalities shall submit to
the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), as part of their annual budget proposals,
the number of positions occupied by covered employees and workers in this Act which are
required to be created.

SECTION 5. Substitute Eligibility for Regular and Non-Regular Government
Employees. For those who do not possess eligibility, substitute civil service eligibility is hereby
granted to all regular employees and non-regular employees such as casuals and contractuals and
all workers under job orders, contracts of service, and emergency and seasonal hiring contracts
however designated, who are able to render at least six (6) months of continuous service in the
government, including all the national government agencies, LGUs, SUCs, GOCCs and all other
government instrumentalities;

As used in this Act, substitute civil service eligibility refers to the qualification acquired by an
individual after serving for at least six (6) continuous months in any government agency or
instrumentality, LGU, SUCs, GOCCs, etc. as a non-regular employee or worker, for entrance
into and promotion in the civil service. In the case of substitute civil service eligibles, merit and
fitness to perform the duties and assume the responsibilities of the position are deemed to have
been acquired through the individual's daily performance of his or her work for six (6) months or
more and to be recognized by the government agency or instrumentality which utilized his or her
services for the said period.

SECTION 6. Appropriations. The initial funding required for the implementation of this Act
shall be sourced from the budget of the agencies concerned. The funds needed in subsequent
years shall be included in the General Appropriations Act.

SECTION 7. Penalty Clause. Any violation or circumvention of the provisions of this Act
shall make the involved officials of the government agency or instrumentality criminally and
administratively liable.

SECTION 8. Implementing Rules and Regulations. The Civil Service Commission, in
consultation with the DBM, shall issue the rules and regulations necessary to implement the
provisions of this Act within ninety (90) days after its approval.

SECTION 9. Separability Clause. Should any provision herein be declared unconstitutional,
the remaining provisions not otherwise affected shall be valid and subsisting.

SECTION 10. Repealing Clause. All laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations or other
issuances or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 11. Effectivity Clause. — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or one (1) newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,