:KaBlooog!

No matter how lengthy the discussion may be on what should be and what should not be followed, ultimately the law has the final say on everything. So what does it say? Luckily, I chanced upon a book by Busto entitled Philippine Civil Service Law: With Omnibus Rules Implementing Book V of Executive Order No. 292 And Other Pertinent Civil Service Laws. Naturally I was curious (although I guess it would be fair to say that that is an understatement). Lo and behold! I opened the book, and there it was, Rule XVII Sec 9 of E.O. 292:

SECTION 9. Offsetting of tardiness or absences by working for an equivalent number of minutes or hours
by which an officer or employee has been tardy or absent, beyond the regular or approved working hours
of the employees concerned, shall not be allowed. (emphasis mine)

In part 1 of this mini-series, I mentioned that this is what we do in lieu of what should be leave privileges. Does this mean that what we have been doing all along is illegal? It got me thinking more. So I decided to scan the pages and see if something else catches my eye (I didn’t want to read the whole damn book). A few pages later:

GUIDELINES, PROCEDURES AND REQUIREMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF APPOINTMENTS.

Hmmm…

Rule II COMMON REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES FOR REGULAR APPOINTMENTS 4. Employment Status    a. The employment status, which is one of the following, shall be indicated on the appropriate
       space provided therefor:
…    4. Co-­terminous – issued to a person whose entrance and continuity in the service is based on the trust and confidence of the appointing authority or that which is subject to his pleasure or co­existent with his tenure or limited by the duration of a project or subject to the availability of funds or issued for a position which is co­existent with the appointee or
as provided for by the law.
… For the purposes of coverage of membership with the GSIS, co-­terminous
appointees shall be considered permanent unless stated otherwise in the appointment.
(emphasis mine)

Whoa! Hold on a second. We were told that the DOST-GIA Guidelines for hiring project personnel stipulates that project personnel should be hired as full-time employees, but with the Civil Service Commission rules limiting the hiring of personnel, ASTI had no choice but to create a "hybrid policy" in order to satisfy both overseeing agencies. But here it is, CSC Memorandum Circular No. 38, s. 1993, saying that they can actually hire people where their tenure is coexistent or limited to the duration of the project. In other words, they could have chosen to hire us as co-terminus employees but elected not to. Bear in mind though that this MC was implemented in 1993, and has been amended numerous times since. Unfortunately (for me), the latest that I found were MC’s s. 1998. Nevertheless, I have a gut feeling that this provision has not been repealed. It might have been edited, but the essence of it should still be the same. (At present, I am still trying to look for MC’s dating from 1999 to present. I only found MC’s for 2007 and 2006 in the CSC’s website, the rest, I haven’t had success yet)

   ASTI (you might have noticed by now that this is the government agency of interest)–at least the higher-ups at ASTI–contend (this is, in my opinion, what are trying to tell us, indirectly of course and not in those exact words) that due to the circumstances, they were forced to follow the CSC Policy Guidelines for Contracts of Services. In fairness to them, they did provide as a copy of the said guidelines (or more appropriately, a summary of the guidelines). According to the guidelines:

a) The contract covers lump sum work or services such as janitorial, security or consultancy services, where no employer-employee relationship exist (emphasis mine);
b) The job order covers piece of work or intermittent job of short duration not exceeding six months on a daily basis;
c) The contracts of service or job orders are not covered by Civil Service Law, rules and regulations but covered by COA rules;
d) The employees involved in the contracts or job orders do not enjoy the benefits enjoyed by government employees, such as PERA, COLA and RATA.
(Sec. 2., CSC MC No. 01, s. 2007; Rule IX, CSC MC. No. 40, s. 1998 as amended by CSC No. 15, s. 1999; Rule V CSC MC No. 38, s. 1993)

It is my impression that they wanted to hire more project staff but could not because of the usual cap in the number of regular employees that the CSC provides. Thus, the inconsistencies and irregularities.

   Quite puzzling for me is the fact that they neglected to mention Rule V Sec. 14 of E.O. 292, or any provision for that matter regarding hiring of co-terminous project personnel. Did they think it wasn’t relevant to the issue at hand? Or has it been repealed and that this employment status not longer exist? I think the latter is very improbable. But I like to think the best of people, so I cannot think that they intentionally ignored this small detail and hoped that we won’t ever know about it. No, I do not think that they would do anything like that. I guess they just thought it was irrelevant and a waste of time to include this in the discussion.

   But the fact remains (assuming that the provision on co-terminous employment is still in effect) that there would have been less inconsistencies and irregularities, and that the welfare of the project staff would not have been compromised had the institute elected to hire us as co-terminous project personnel, thus employees who are entitled to at least some benefits.

   I am afraid that I might be biting more than I can chew here. This is the exact reason why I did not choose to pursue a career in law. But I feel I have not done my part in helping to defend the welfare of my fellow workers. This is a small step, but I hope that creating awareness goes a long way to be able to change the system. Marx believed that before a social revolution can take place, the proletariat must first become aware that they are being oppressed and exploited. Without that "social conciousness," there cannot be a revolution.

(to be continued …)

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My apologies for the erratic manner in which I write as I am doing this "on-the-fly," so to speak. I do not have much chance of editing what I write, so what you read is pretty much an unadulterated peek at my mind generating words and constructing ideas.
There are a lot more that I have read and would want to write about but for the moment, my brain is stumped, so till the next entry…

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Every individual’s work or labor has a corresponding labor value. We work for someone who has money or capital, and in exchange for our labor, we receive compensation that should be commensurate to our labor-value. Unfortunate as it is, the result is that the  worker’s labor—consequently the laborer—becomes a commodity, and as such is subject to the varying economic forces that will dictate his labor’s value. So the price of the labor should, at the very least, be valued according to how the present labor market values the workers’ labor.

In our case, it is extremely improbable—almost bordering outside the realm of the possibility—that we will be paid according to the current value of labor. It is to be expected, especially so that I am talking about a government agency, that our pay will be considerably smaller than what we should be receiving. Even our project leaders, who are regular employees of the agency, are severely underpaid (relative to the labor market of course). So to be able to compensate for the discrepancies, many mechanisms are put in place to at least provide something in return other than the basic salaries. These may come in the form of bonuses, leaves, loans for housing, and many other benefits. But unfortunately for us project staff, who are not considered as employees, we do not receive any benefits at all (other than the occasional pat in the back). To the credit of our immediate superiors,  I know that they know this, they always come up with something so as to provide us with some semblance of benefits. And to that I am truly gratified.

Unfortunately, those are not permanent solutions to what I perceive as problems in the management of our human resources. They are just patches to cover-up gaping holes in the system. Changes have to be implemented so as to give the credit to where it is due, and in this case to us, the workers. This may come as something as simple as providing sick and vacation leave for the project staff, or as drastic as removing altogether the “no employer-employee relationship” clause in our contracts and making us contractual employees who will receive—and it does not need to be at par with regular employees—some benefits in return for our service.

I guess what I am trying to say is that both parties, the employers and the employees (the project staff), should be open-minded in trying to look for a compromise in order to ensure no one is put at an extreme disadvantage. At present, we are placed at the extreme end of that disadvantage, where an infraction such as tardiness or absence will result in an immediate salary deduction. We should have at least some chance of avoiding that deduction by having whatever mechanisms in place. Of course, offending employees should be given their due sanction, but what if there were legitimate reasons for his inability to come to office? In other words, cut us some slack.

I am by no means saying that this is the solution. This is just one option that can be explored. I am not well versed in the intricacies of economics or that of the law. But I know unfair when I see it, and I see it here.

(to be continued …)

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When I started working in a government agency (no, SA doesn’t count though technically it should), I had prepared for the worst. But nothing could have prepared me for the realization that dawned several months later. Take note that I said "… working in a government agency …" and not "… working for a government agency … ." There is a stark difference between the two, to which later on I will elaborate. It really wasn’t that bad, because I might be giving an Oliver Twist-que impression to our working conditions. No, it isn’t anything like that. To the contrary even, almost everybody in our office is amicable, to say the least, plus I have a comfy chair so it doesn’t look like I have anything to complain.

But that’s just the thing, for someone desperate for work, our job would be good enough, more than enough even. But a closer scrutiny of the whole working situation would reveal an unpleasant surprise. Let’s start with what I mentioned earlier. I said that I was "working in" and not "working for" a government agency. Our contract stipulates that a project staff such as myself does not have an "employer-employee" relationship with the agency. So technically I am not an employee, as such, I am not entitled to benefits an ordinary government employee normally enjoys. Zero benefits. Period. Imagine that.

Oh that, well, we are told that we should even be thankful because our salaries are higher compared to our regular employee counterparts. Why? because our 13th month pay is incorporated in each of our monthly salary. Meaning to say, (13th month pay)/12 + normal salary = our salary. So we shouldn’t be complaining, right? Wait… if that is the case, then aren’t we the ones with lesser salaries? If we add our gross salaries for the whole year, shouldn’t they be the same? So how did we get a higher salary? Add in to the fact that regular government employees receive additional bonuses such as COLA, performance bonuses, etc. You do the math. Oh, and by the way, those were rhetorical questions.

So what if I got sick? Well screw me. No pay for me. What if I need to work overtime? Well thank you, boy. Just chalk it up as one of your contributions to the Filipino people. Well, in fairness, we are allowed to use the number of hours we spent on overtime in case we won’t go to work. You just have to know the day before if you’re going to get sick, because you can’t offset your overtime after you were absent. You have to ask permission first. oh, and by the way, the validity lasts only after n months (as of the moment I am unaware of the validity period, it used to be one year, but I am assuming they changed it already). And if I use one overtime, if there are any remaining hours left,I cannot use them anymore. So if I have 12 hours of OT, and I only used 2 hours, then the 10 hours go to waste–to ThankYouLand.

Did I mention that I work as a computer programmer? I thought I sounded like a janitor or something.

But despite all these, I am still thankful I was able to work here. I learned a lot of things that make my once sparse resume very attractive. In addition, I very much enjoyed working for/with my project leaders and manager. Under different (meaning more favorable circumstance) I would still take the opportunity to work with them.

(to be continued …)

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I have a lot of thoughts on this so I’ll try to elaborate, and maybe add, on some of those issues I presented here on my next post…

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It’s amazing how time seems to glide by
without a moment’s notice, just like footprints on the beach washed
away by the waves in the shore. One moment they’re there, the next
they’re gone forever. It’s cliché i know,  but it’s the truth
nonetheless and we know it. Our lives are just but one fleeting
moment in the vast ocean of time. I guess that’s the reason a lot of
us feel our lives are insignificant. In a way it is, but should it
be? The familiar answer is no, it shouldn’t be. Easier said than
done. We can be a Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela or a Michael Jordan and
change the world, but i don’t think a lot of us can have that
opportunity. It takes a whole lot more that perseverance and hard
work to achieve what they have, although those traits are
nevertheless necessary if you want to do what they did.

Okay, I just made those up. I could
never say for sure, you know. I’ve never been there, and I don’t
think I ever will. History creates great people, not the other way
around, Karl Marx said once. A lot may disagree, but under the
circumstances I tend to favor his line of thought. If the time is not
ripe for what we want, a revolution perhaps (okay I’m grossly
exaggerating), then everything we do will be for nothing But I
digress.

To those who feel as insignificant as I
do—at least at the moment, for we never know when we’re going to be
thrust into the limelight—our fault may be in the way we see
things. I think we look too far ahead of ourselves. Maybe we should
take a moment to gather ourselves, step back and take things into
perspective (i know, i know, another cliché). Only then will
we be able to see that we are not Atlases, carrying the world in our
shoulders, but simply as a mother, a father, a brother, a sister or a
friend to others.

Some may remark that doing so confines
ourselves to our own little bubble with a few people in it. That’s
just it. We can’t put too much people on our own bubble because it’ll
just burst, and along with it  the people we care about. If we take
care of our own bubbles, make sure it don’t burst, then we can have
an opportunity to connect with other people’s bubbles, and so on so
forth ad infinitum.

So that whatever choices we make,
whether it concerns the fate of a nation, or of a multinational
company, or just our paycheck, we can be sure that even if it blows
up in our face, we still have our own personal bubble with the people
we care about in it.

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well well well … after a long hiatus, i’m back! i discarded my old blogs because they were all embarrassingly crappy. don’t worry, if this turns out crappy too, this’ll be gone before you can say HOLY CRAP WHAT $*&T IS THIS! =P

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