VERA Files took snap shots of the state of the country’s greatest resource,Filipino manpower, on Labor Day:
JENNY Tanael, 47, is a wife of a minimum wage earner and mother of a contractual worker.
Her eldest son Juan Paolo keeps on hunting for a job each time his five-month contract in a fast food chain expires. Sometimes it takes him six months to find work at another branch of said restaurant. In between jobs, he relies for support on his father who earns less than P 400 per day as a security guard.
Her son has been unemployed for two months now. Since Juan Paolo is turning 24 he will have to look for another company since his former employer only accepts workers 23 years and below.
http://verafiles.org/job-contractualization-the-next-big-issue-after-wage-hike/
As of last year, 2.814 million out of the 40 million economically active Filipinos do not have jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES).
Data from BLES showed that the number of underemployed persons rose by 401,000, reaching 7.163 million last year.
The National Statistics Office defines underemployment as all employed persons who express a desire to: have an additional job, work additional hours in their present job, or have a job with longer working hours.
http://verafiles.org/dont-worry-if-not-hired-at-job-fair-dole-says/
Dignity of labor..this is what is missing in our country!!! barya na nga sweldo contractual pa!
ellen, please allow me to re-post this:
we will be recruiting filipino workers for a new project here in jeddah, a high speed rail link project to connect cities of jeddah and makkah for the first phase and eventually, madinah. we will be recruiting (first batch, initially) in manila:
60 steel fixers
60 carpenters
25 masons
05 labours
07 civil engineers
02 surveyors
03 safety officers
‘yung mga kuwalipikado para sa mga nabanggit na posisyon, just advise them send resume at MRivera@almabani.com.sa.
sending resume means 50% assured of a job and the remaining 50% depends on how anyone shall perform during the personal interview and trade test to be conducted by the project director and manager who will go to manila. any applicant who passes the interview shall undergo medical examination to determine fitness to work.
other details can be obtained from the agency officially appointed by the company to process applications.
Ganun talaga ang buhay. Hindi lahat puwede maging regular. Talagang may contractual dahil hindi exciting ang buhay kong lahat ng tao puro professional.
nakakalungkot isipin na habang tumatagal ay lalong nalulublob sa karukhaan ang napakarami nating kababayan habang ang ilang nakaririwasa ay patuloy ang pagsirit ng kayamanan partikular ‘yung mga kapitalistang ang pananagutan sa gobyerno katulad ng pagbabayad ng kaululang buwis at iba pang bayaring may kinalaman sa kanilang mga negosyo ay ipinapasa sa mga consumer na kinabibilangan din ng kanilang mga underpaid na mga kawani.
hindi mangyayari ang ganito kung ang ating mga mambabatas ay hindi nakikipagkutsabahan sa mga negosyanteng kanilang pinangakuan ng umaapaw na immunity kapalit ang pagsuportang pinansiyal noong panahon ng eleksiyon.
ang mga lider natin ay magaling lang sa pangako kapag panahon ng eleksiyon. wala silang nasa isip kundi ang proteksyunan at pag-ibayuhin ang kanilang yaman lalo’t nakuha na ang minimithing posisyon.
It takes perseverance, not to mention time and money, to challenge such illegal practices in court. The law is clear about which job is considered contractual or not. If a job position is necessary in the course of the business, is not seasonal, and not for a specific project, the position is deemed regular. If you are hired to repair the leaking roofs of a building, THAT is a contractual position. The job is coterminous with the project.
Usual contractual employees such as clerks, typists, salesladies, usually sign up for a 5-month stint to avoid the 6-month regularization cutoff which the courts recognize as circumvention of the law. Furthermore it is stupid for, say a department store, to hire contractual salesladies because it is the main income-generator of the business: Sales. Salesladies are therefore integral to the business and can never be considered temporary nor seasonal.
If these people can get straight, no-nonsense lawyers, they will be fairly rewarded. My wife’s case is the landmark SC decision that was decided in her favor in the labor court, court of appeals, then Supreme Court after she filed a case against her company when she was dismissed after she joined the union after working only 6 months and 7days. The trial went almost 4 years, with the lawyer advancing all the expenses at first. The higher courts upheld the labor court’s decision of return to work without loss of seniority, payment of accumulated full back wages fixed at three years in a single lump sum. What’s great is that she had already been working a regular job in another company yet she was paid the full 3 years. That’s the big difference between the Ople Law and Herrera Law. The Ople Law awards payment of full back wage only if the worker doesn’t get employed during the trial, or the SALARY DIFFERENTIAL ONLY, if the plaintiff salary is lower in the second company while awaiting the award. If her salary is higher than the award, she doesn’t get a single centavo.
Many have followed the same line of argumentation as that of my wife’s and all of them already awarded similar judgments, making the practice of contractualization which was previously impugnable, now illegal.
Over 23 and no longer employable at his former job? Isn’t that Discrimination in regards to Age? And where do the Rights to equal treatment before the law in the Bills of Rights stand here? Are Rights and Laws against Discrimination just Lip Service and no effect in Force at all? Most are already suffering from the low wages and salaries and being exploited by your own country Labour Standard laws is not surprising that most will take anything at all even risking the breakup of family and marriage to look and find employment out of the country and some soo unfortunate ending up in countries who exploited them much more than their own…and it has been going on and not much has been done…contractual work to avoid the benefits and other dues for full-time workers…some paying under the minimum…unsafe working conditions…And the rich get richer and the poor have nowhere to go…
Take this for example…lately there are many immigrants that came at later age of 40 and 50 and some in their 60s and most have left many relatives to help from their home countries…Retirement by law WAS compulsory at age 65 and in some companies early retirement can start at 55 as per Collective Bargaining for Pension and benefits purposes…Government pensions can be had at 60 at discounted amount, but since most still need to have an income other than the Pensions (which is determined by the amount contributed) and the universal old age benefits, COMPULSORY Retirement is no Longer applicable…anyone soo wishes Can work till he drops…( as long as he still can work)and anyone can still apply for job after retirement (going back to the workforce, either for the need of extra income, or just for the heck of it…part time of full time…) and can not be Discriminated because of his age…
Some companies operating on seasonal business as there are many businesses that are seasonal, like snow clearing, and landscaping will usually hire contractual workers and in off season where these contract workers can not find jobs in other field or other another contractual seasonal job or part time job, the Unemployment cheques will take over until the next season where they will go back to their seasonal jobs…
Instead of Finding Loopholes, the Government and Employers are plugging the Holes. The employers by contributing to the (un) employment insurance…
Ang isa sa hindi ko maintindihan dito sa bansang Pilipinas bakit ang naghahanap ng hanap-buhay, halimbawa, isang mangagawa sa EPSA sa Rosario, Cavite ay kailangan pang ibigay sa kanyang mga papeles kung siya ay may asawa, ilan ang anak, ano ang relihiyon at gaano siya kataas at ano ang kanyang timbang. Ito ba ay kailangan pang malaman ng mga kinauukulan kung ang isang tao ay naghahanap ng hanap-buhay bilang isang mangagawa?
The Security of Tenure Bill is another useless duplication that even if passed into law, will never be respected unless Government really implements it to the letter.
The prevailing laws already outlawed labor-only contracting and has defined what contractual labor is. The reason these contracts remain in practice is because government never seriously implements them. What the existing laws need are penal provisions that ensure that local officials will ensure that companies these laws or else they face fines and/or jail time.
Let’s remind all such workers that even if you have signed an employment contract, it does not necessarily mean that your are contractual. A contract only becomes binding if the terms of a contract are in itself legal. A contract with illegal conditions are outright void.
If you are faced with these conditions, always consult a labor lawyer. Employers who violate the law will always try to intimidate the complainant if not bribe the lawyer or arbiter. If you blink first, you lose.
Slip of The TonGuE:
“…ensure that companies implement these laws…”