Govt contractual, job order workers get a break

President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. presides over a sectoral meeting on Agenda on Guidelines Governing the Contract of Service and Job Order Workers in the Government in Malacanang Palace on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Photos by Yummie Dingding / PPA POOL

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has extended the validity of the contract of service (CoS) and job order (JO) engagements of government workers whose contracts expire in December this year, Malacañang announced on Thursday.

The President made the decision during a sectoral meeting at the Palace with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Civil Service Commission (CSC), and Commission on Audit (CoA) last Wednesday.

Marcos noted that his decision was in line with his administration’s goal to build a pool of government workers who can qualify for and perform in plantilla positions.

“Let’s study it, just look at the numbers, the data on average, government agencies. How many of their employees are contractual? How many items are in their plantilla proper are not filled? How many are contractual as a percentage of the total number of employees? Because the percentages are one of the most important. Then we’ll see the average. [It will] give us an idea how people are using the system,” he said.

The President also instructed government agencies to develop the skills and capabilities of CoS and JO workers by reeducating and training them with the help of higher learning institutions and enabling them to pass the civil service examination.

The CSC-CoA-DBM Joint Circular (JC) 1, s. 20172 established the rules for hiring of CoS and JO workers in government until Dec. 31, 2018.

CoS refers to the engagement of the services of an individual, private firm, other government agency, nongovernment agency, or international organization as a consultant, learning service provider or technical expert to undertake a special project or job within a specific period.

JO refers to piece work (pakyaw), intermittent or emergency jobs to be undertaken for a short duration and for a specific piece of job.

Subsequent issuances such as CoA-DBM JC 2, s. 2020 and CoA-DBM JC 2, s. 2022, extended the transitional period for the engagement of CoS and JO workers to Dec. 31, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2024, respectively, to allow government agencies to review their organizational and staffing requirements.

Since the issuance of CSC-CoA-DBM JC 1, s. 2017, the number of CoS and JO workers in the government have increased.

As of June 30 last year, 29.68 percent, or 832,812 of the government workforce, were CoS and JO workers, a 29.71-percent increase from 2022.

The top five national government agencies with the highest number of CoS and JO workers are the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with 29,275; Department of Health (DoH), 18,264; Department of Education (DepEd), 15,143; Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), 13,770; and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), 10,990.

With the expiration of the transitional period on Dec. 31, 2024, CoS and JO workers risk losing their jobs.

The President noted that with the experience of the CoS and JO workers, many of whom have been in government for many years, they should be assisted to obtain the required qualifications so they can be placed in permanent positions and have the same benefits as those in permanent positions.

Government agencies should work with educational institutions to help them review for the CSC examinations, Marcos said.