Chapter 2

Theoretical Framework

During the campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte, He vowed to end labor

contractualization in the country. It has been 3 years after assuming the office as
President of the Republic of the Philippines yet labor contractualization has worsened
and become widespread in the Philippine civil service.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XIII, Section 3 thereof, states that: “The
State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized
and full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all. It shall guarantee
the rights of all workers to self- organization, collective bargaining and negotiations, 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 provided by law.”

This section of the constitution clearly states that the State shall provide full
protection to labor not just in terms of security but also to the working condition and
sufficient salary and benefit of the working public.

The fact of the significant increase of the population the COS personnel in the
government service is a clear manifestation that these positions are necessary and/or
desirable to the orderly and efficient delivery of services of the government agencies.
Furthermore, the government agencies keep on appointing the same individuals after
the contract period ends is huge evidence that these personnel are performing
efficiently and effectively of perform the function and unquestionably meeting the
minimum requirement for the said position. In lieu, these personnel deserve to have a
unified benefit system across all government agencies to compensate their efforts while
working in the public office.

2.1 Review of Related Literatures, Studies and Policies

2.1.1 Attracting competitive professionals to the government service

Gotladera (1986) narrated that the Former President Corazon Aquino already
envisioned a Philippine bureaucracy with qualities of honesty, competence and humility.
Moreover, she wanted a government service to be as attractive as the private sector to
the brightest and best the Filipino people.
2.1.2 Types of Employment of the Public Sector

The CSC-COA-DBM Joint Circular No. 1, s. 2017 provides the following types of
employment in the public sector and their respective definition:

a) Contract of Service – refers to the engagement of services of individual private firm,

other government agency, non-governmental agency or international organization as
consultant, learning service provider or technical expert to undertake special project or
job within specific period

b) Contractor or Service provider – individual, government agency, private or non-

government entity, duly-registered and recognized by authorized government agencies
to provide consultancy

c) Institutional contract – agreement between the government agency and contractor

or service provider duly-registered and recognized by authorized government agencies
to provide service such as consultancy, and other support services

d) Job Order – piece work (pakyaw) or intermittent or emergency jobs such as

manual/trade and crafts services such as carpentry or plumbing, clearing of debris, etc.

e) Support services – may include janitorial, security, driving, data encoding,

equipment and grounds maintenance and other services that support the day to day
operations of the agency
Among the types of employment mentioned in the preceding paragraph, Contract of
Service and Job Order workers are not covered by the Civil Service law and rules thus,
they are not creditable as government service. This means that they are not entitled to
the benefits received by government employees such as leave credits, Personal
Economic Relief Allowance, Representation and Transportation Allowance, and 13th
Month pay.

2.1.3 The Need for Job Order and Contract of Service Personnel

JOs are workers who receive wages equivalent to daily wage/salary of comparable
positions in government and a premium of up to 20 percent of such wage/salary. Their
wages/salaries shall be charged against the Maintenance and Other Operating
Expenses (MOOE) in the approved agency budget.

On the other hand, contract of service workers are those whose wages/salaries are
equivalent to the prevailing market rates, subject to the provision of RA 9184 and its
implementing rules and regulation. Their wages/salaries are also charged against the
agency’s MOOE, but their enrollment to social benefit programs (i.e. Social Security
Services, PhilHealth, and PAG-IBIG Fund) is a prerogative of the individual (as self-
employed).

In regards on hiring of job orders, Section 7.2 of the CSC-COA-DBM Joint Circular No.
1, s. 2017 lays down the following conditions to take into consideration on hiring job
orders: “Hiring of job order workers shall be limited to emergency or intermittent
work, such as clearing of debris on the roads, canal, waterways, etc. after natural/man-
made disasters/occurrences; other trade and crafts, and manual tasks such as
carpentry, plumbing, painting, electrical, and the like which are not part of the regular
functions of the agency.”

Similarly, Section 7.1 states the conditions on hiring contract of service workers: “Hiring
under contract of service shall be limited to consultants, learning service providers,
and/or other technical experts to undertake special project or job within a specific
period. The project or job is not part of the regular functions of the agency, or the
expertise is not available in the agency, or it is impractical or more expensive for the
government agency to directly undertake the service provided by the individual or
institutional contractor.”

Based on the aforementioned provisions, it is implied that a government agency can

only engage the services of job orders and contract of service workers if there is an
emergency or intermittent work that need to be undertaken and when there is a lack of
highly technical personnel who will take part in a special project of job. Accordingly, job
orders require low- and middle-level skills while contract of service workers are those
“expert” who possessed highly-technical knowledge. To conclude, government agencies
hire job orders and contract of service workers to augment their workforce in order to
maintain the continuity of provision of public services.

SYNTHESIS:

In the study of Anwar, et.al (2011) about the temporary job and its impact to employee
performance, short- term employment results to: reduced loyalty to the organization and
employee dissatisfaction. Furthermore, the aforementioned study stressed out those
bureaucratic goals can be achieved only due to employee’s performance. The author
said that one of the greatest motivational factors to satisfy the employees is providing
competitive salaries and giving additional perks such as incentives to the employees.
This study strongly agrees that there is a positive correlation between benefit and
employee satisfaction.