DAVAO CITY — Militant solons are pushing for the passage of its pending bill in Congress that aims to ensure job security for workers.
Representatives Emmi De Jesus and Luz Ilagan of Gabriela Women’s Partylist filed House Bill 4396 or the Regular Employment Bill, or REB, to counter the ill effects of RA 6715 passed 26 years ago today under President Corazon Aquino.
Also known as the Labor Code, proponents explained that “the law turned workers into temporary hires, untitled to guaranteed protections, such as job security, union membership, paid leaves, and health benefits”.
Ilagan said the bill “seeks to delete Articles 106 and 107 of the Labor Code which allows labor-only contracting and job contracting practices where specific jobs are farmed out to contractors or agencies or arrangements where specific work or service despite being essential to the company’s operation are contracted only for a specific period of time”.
“These arrangements are detrimental to workers’ rights. Consequently, they are denied benefits, living wages and the right to form unions,” said Ilagan.
De Jesus said contractualization schemes even worsened as the scheme was continued under Aquino’s son Benigno with the issuance of DOLE Order 18-A in 2011.
“DO18-A now even encroached on sensitive and strategic services such as banking, IT, airlines, and academic teaching that lead to the dissolution of regular positions, cutbacks in legal benefits, and cancellation of collective bargaining agreements to fatten investor profits,” De Jesus said.
