DEPARTMENT OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES MANILA
Padre Faura, Manila

View of Max Weber on

Contractualization of Workers

CONCEPT PAPER

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of Requirements in

Social Science II

Submitted by:
Jose Raphael M. Delos Santos
2014-43851
College of Nursing Batch 2018

Submitted to:
Mr. Julian Advincula

May 2017
 Introduction

Endo. End of Contract. Workers would often complain of short lived jobs.

Workers would often complain of being deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the full

benefit of being a regular employee. Workers are oppressed and exploited as a result of

this. This is contractualization and this is a very appealing issue in the Philippines ever

since, and especially within the last year.

Contractualization is the practice of hiring employees who would render their

services for a finite amount of time, usually for a few months only. This is also called the

“5-5-5” practice as this practice hires an employee and then terminates his contract after

five months because when a worker reach six months, he is regularized unless he is not

qualified, as mandated by the law. This is a system that has been practiced by many

companies, including large corporations and this is being done to keep the revenues of

the said corporations high. In return, the workers do not get their full benefits as a

worker. However, this happens because there are companies who need workers but still

wants high returns and workers who need to earn for their family and would suffice with

whatever work environment there may be.

According to Max Weber, with some influences form Karl Marx, the society is

stratified by classes and statuses and this is an interplay between wealth, prestige and

power. These are the primary forces that separate groups of people from other groups

of people and that is how contractualization was formed and affected the society. This

paper will focus on the issue of contractualization in the Philippines and how it affects

the society, analyzing the issue using the views and concepts of Max Weber in the

society, politics and sociology.

 Contractualization: Bureaucracy and Stratification

Contractualization is, as said earlier, the practice of hiring workers for a short

time and ending their contracts before they even become regular employees of the

company. This is a way to exploit our labor force and stratification and bureaucracy are

the central theme of the issue.

Stratification is the state of being divided into different social classes and Max

Weber asserted that stratification, as opposed to Karl Marx, was based more than the

ownership of the capital but rather an interplay among wealth, prestige and power.

Wealth is the economic value that a person possesses. It may be money, building,

lands, farms, houses, factories or other assets. This is the economic situation of the

person. This affects the society because those who have higher economic status are

often the capitalists in the society as they have money to spend for their business. They

can also pay for the services of other people. In the issue of the contractualization, the

agencies and the companies who hire workers are the ones who have wealth and

because of this economic imbalance, they have the capability of control over others.

The agencies are managed by tycoons who are wealthy enough to buy services from

others. They can control others especially the ones whom services they have bought.

These services are provided by these workers who badly want to earn for their family.

They want to work as this is the demand put on them by the societal cycle of currency.

They have to earn money for their personal necessities, for the needs of their family to

survive especially food, shelter, and other basic needs as termed by Abraham Maslow

in his Hierarchy of Needs. Because of these needs, which the workers can only provide

if they earn from whatever work environment, they can be exploited by the ones who
can pay for their services. And, one way they can be exploited by the wealthier class of

the society is through contractualization.

Prestige of the person, on the other hand, also affects the social stratification of

the society because prestige is the respect with which a person or status position is

regarded by others. This is also called the status situation. This affects the stratification

as this is how one looks to others. This is the respect that one earns from others.

Because of the reputation of some companies and even the corporations of good pay

and high yielding experiences, even though bogged by termination of contract before

regularization, many of the workers chooses to apply to those works to get what they

need for now. They need easy money for their and their family’s needs. Just because

working for this certain company suffices the financial demands of the family, this

comes fine for the many. We see, this is the very problem of the Philippine community

— the division among affluence and indigency.

Often times, this division among the classes in the society causes unresolving

and yet conflicting views about the power play in the society. This is further aggravated

by the situation of the workers in the Philippines. The workers are pushed more on the

outskirts of the society but the wealthier classes are concentrated on the tip of the

hierarchy. The workers are then stripped off more of power while the tops are earning.

The powerless are becoming more powerless. Hopeless, indeed. This is the play of

power among the classes. Power, the ability of the people to achieve their goals despite

the opposition of others, is the cental to stratificstion of the society. In the light of the

contractualization, the employers are terminating the contracts of the innocent workers,

just because they are the owners of the company, they are the powerhouse of the
agency, they can do whatever they want to their subsidiaries, the workers. This

termination of the contract strips them off of the benefits the regular workers are

receiving. The worker then cannot do anything as they do not have the authority to do

so. As it seems, power is always rooted to economic relations and these earns the

employers the authority to control others not because of manipulation or coercion,

rather by the acknowledged duty to obey because it is them who pays the services, the

work of the people. This authority of the employers is called rational or legal as his

leadership is based largely on the legal rationality, legal legitimacy and bureaucracy.

This is the type of the authority where one leads others by the set rules and hierarchy.

Bureaucracy is what acts in these kinds of organizations as there are hierarchy of

positions to maximize the resources of the company and the works of the people. As

Weber said that the society is greatly centered in bureaucracy. In another light, this has

its own advantages as these are based on rational principles. The institution of the

agencies has specializations for each department and the works are divided into the

hierarchy of whether this particular work needs great attention. As for the example of

the government, the hierarchy was divided from the president to the the gabinetes to the

local sectors up to the barangay level. When we come to think of this, the problems in

the barangay level are solved by the officials in the baranagay. The people in the higher

positions need not to dwell much on the issues not covered by their set of job

description. In the perspective of the agency, this is the practical rationality for the

institution --- to deliver services efficiently while not having the burden of regularizing the

hired workers. On the other perspective, to the workers, this contractualization

generates new jobs every time as there are positions being emptied every five months.
Theoretically, the generation of jobs are beneficial to the country as this helps the

economic sector by providing jobs and opportunities to the people and also participate

in the national produce. However, the hiring of worker for temporary work only increases

the exploitation of the workers. This is increasing the exploitation of the workers as the

workers are not given the chance to be regulars in their work, thus decreasing the

benefits of the workers. Formal rationality tells us that this contractualization has

implications on the economic and legal spheres. This contractualization makes the

agency procure higher yields as they do not need to pay for the benefits, insurance and

the pensions of their workers in turn leaving their income as it is. In the view of the

workers being blinded by the temporary benefits of having work, they suffice with the

pay they are getting because they want to earn for their family in the present to help

with the demands of the society. Without them knowing that they cannot get the benefits

of the regular worker.

Dehumanization. Depersonalization. These are the words that best describe

what happens to the society with this contractualization. Weber once said that this is

one major disadvantage of having bureaucracy. The workers are unclothed of their

rights as workers. Their benefits were not given due to the personal and egoistic

interests of the ones above the hierarchy. Our workers are exploited. Ever since, the

workers have recognized the problem in this but have not taken action. Over the past

few years, actions against this have been significantly prominent because of the need of

the people for more stable jobs. As conflicts of property, prestige and power arise

between the league of workers and the groups of the employees, many actions are now

being done to address this problem. The workers have now realized their own will in
communal actions even against the resistance of others. The mode of this social actions

works through uniformity as each individual fighting for the rights of the workers are

believing that this should be stopped. They are not just doing this to follow the trend.

Neither do because this is an act of long familiarity. This is a rather new concept to

everyone as contractualization is the issue of the modern world. This action is

considered a social action because of the subjective meanings that humans attach to

this issue. The workers who fight for this is not just fighting for the removal of the

exploitation of the workers but they are fighting for their very rights as a human worker

deserving for benefits disregarding the time they have spent in working for a company

or agency. Due to this rationality, this social action is value-rational as this involves

conscious belief in the absolute value entirely for its own sake and independence of

prospects for external success.

During the current administration, Duterte is trying to partake in the action of

ending the illegal practice of hiring workers on a contract basis, the contractualization.

This is one of his famous campaign promises and many have hoped that the eradication

of this issue will happen in his administration. Also under the leadership of Labor

Secretary Bello III, he reported that the DOLE had regularized 36,000 workers out of 1.3

million contractual workers by the end of the 2016. However, this value was not even a

percent of the value of total contractual workers identified. In addition, this March 2017,

Bello III signed a newer order that set stricter guidelines of contractualization. Although,

the labor groups were still not satisfied by this as they want all forms of

contractualization banned. However, Duterte agreed to certify as urgent the measures

against contractualization.
 Measures to eradicate the social issue are being done and moved. Slowly but

surely, this is taken in to the right process and the Philippines is seeing a better future in

the eradication of this by the present administration. This is not the action of the

selected individuals but everyone must do their parts in the fight. By being the

advocates of yourselves being part of the workers class. The Philippines is longing for

this —the freedom of the workers from the sheets of contracts limiting the benefits they

receive.

Applying the views and concepts of Max Weber in the situation of the Philippines

in the contractualization allows us to analyze the issue. However, this is only a

superficial analysis of the problem but this allows us to see the areas where we need to

improve. Being value-rational as the most prominent action, we Filipinos base our action

on our values and not by the adjudication between means and ends. This is evidenced

by the multiple times we used justice in the solving public issues such as the People

Power Revolution.

I can see and I am hoping that the issue will resolve in the present administration,

not just by forming conventions. Not by forming agreements. But, by constituting laws

and orders to completely eradicate the contractualization of workers in the Philippines,

the cage that inhibits the Filipino workers to fly with their rights!