Php 70.00 Vol. 47 No. 07 • July 2013 - IMPACT Magazine Online!

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COVER STORY employee except for a just cause.” 5 Further, the Philippine Constitution also guarantees security of tenure for employees. The guarantee of security of tenure under the Constitution means that an employee cannot be dismissed from the service for causes other than those provided by law and only after due process is accorded the employee. 6 It has been also settled that even if probationary employees do not enjoy permanent status, they are accorded the constitutional protection of security of tenure. This means they may only be terminated for just cause or when they otherwise fail to qualify as regular employees in accordance with reasonable standards made known to them by the employer at the time of their engagement. 7 Employers, local and transnational, however have gotten away defying Philippine labor laws. The Department of Labor has neither clout nor guts to address this crime. Capital makes billions each quarter. And the great irony is, the contractual workers who are creating all those billions of net profit live below subsistence level. A study by the International Labor Organization found that the rate of “contractualization” is now at 70% of the Philippine workforce. Almost every large company depends on contractual workers to get the day’s business done. The government guidelines on subcontracting must protect the interests of both capital and labor. In fact, when most companies’ net profit amounts to millions or billions every year, the contractual minimum wage laborer who bleeds and sweats to create billions of profit for his employer, is left with not enough to eat. The contractual agency also grabs a slice from the employee’s daily minimum wage as administrative fee. 8 Laborem Excercens Ultimately, contractualization of labor is not only illegal and unconstitutional but more so immoral as it goes against the social teaching of the Church. The encyclical Laborem Excercens of Pope John Paul II evidently indicates that full employment is a basic human right of a laborer. We must first direct our attention to a fundamental issue: the question of 18 IMPACT • July 2013
Security of Tenure and Contractualization of Labor of manpower as alternative employment, when poverty and injustice are everywhere, everything turns into a moral issue. 10 The workers are counting on Church leaders to fight this decade old injustice. And the Church ought to speak up and do what it preaches, not only on putting emphasis on the holy sacraments but more so on putting flesh and blood to social encyclicals like Laborem Exercens. 11 It is only by means of putting a firm stand against the evil of labor contractualization can the Philippine Church contribute, albeit minutely, to the alleviation of poverty that it has envisioned in the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines and the teaching of our new Pontiff, Pope Francis. There had been numerous bills pending in Congress against this unfair labor practice. 12 Problem is, most of them are left unacted by our lawmakers. That is why the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines would like to add its voice in order to ensure that this evil labor practice called contractualization would be put on halt by our lawmakers. 13 May St. Joseph, the patron of saint of workers guide our people in combating the evils of contractualization and thereby realize the vision of becoming a Church of the Poor. I _________ 1 Samuel Gregg, “Pope Francis on the True Meaning of Poverty.” Crisis Magazine, June 5, 2013. 2 Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (Manila: Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, 1992), xciv. 3 Arnel F. Lagarejos, The Church of the Poor: 4 Catholic News Agency, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/us-bishops-group-approves-9-million-inanti-poverty-funds. 5 The 1976 Labor Code of the Philippines, Article 279. 6 Philippine Jurisprudence, Phil-Singapore Transport Services, Inc., vs. NLRC, G.R. No. 95449, August 18, 1997. 7 Philippine Jurisprudence, Agoy vs. NRLC, 112096, 30 January 1996. 8 Dahli Aspillera, Malaya Business Insight, published on Monday, 27 May 2013. 9 John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 1 May 1981, AAS 73 (1981): 13. 10 Arthur R. Barrit, Sunstar Newspaper, September 12, 2011 11 Ibid. 12 For instance, House Bill No. 3402 introduced by DIWA Party-list Representative Emmeline Y. Aglipay: An act strengthening the security of tenure of employees in the Labor Code of the Philippines. 13 How I wish that all the efforts put into action by the CBCP against the RH Law would also be applied to fight against this immeasurable malpractice. FILE PHOTO FILE PHOTO finding work, or, in other words, the issue of suitable employment for all who are capable of it.” The problem is not a lack of resources—“conspicuous natural resources remain unused”—but poor organization. The criterion of full employment will only be achieved through planning and coordination among all the indirect employers, and a better coordination of education with employment. 9 Thirty years after the release of the encyclical, workers still toil for very low wages, and are subjected to unfair labor practices, contractualization and outsourcing of regular jobs. And this issue is undoubtedly a moral one. When the government continues to encourage the export Volume 47 • Number 07 19
Page 1 and 2: Vol. 47 No. 07 • July 2013 Php 70
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS EDITORIAL Dole-outs as Sol
Page 5 and 6: ARTICLES of Birth Control www.en.wi
Page 7 and 8: ARTICLES New Congress, renewed push
Page 9 and 10: Development and Decadence FILE PHOT
Page 11 and 12: ARTICLES Lay Participation in the C
Page 13 and 14: NEWS FEATURES Church groups oppose
Page 15 and 16: NEWS FEATURES Hundreds of garment w
Page 17: COVER STORY re and tion of Labor FI
Page 21 and 22: A press statement of the 107th Bish
Page 23 and 24: STATEMENTS ing this event by our nu
Page 25 and 26: STATEMENTS that the state at the mo
Page 27 and 28: EDITORIAL Dole-outs as solutions to
Page 29 and 30: ook reviews 8 Habits of the Happy M
Page 31: ASIA BRIEFING THAILAND. Workshop sh

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