Lawmakers file bill protecting security of tenure of employees

August 19, 2010, 11:55am
Manila Bulletin

MANILA (PNA) — In view of the labor dispute between the Philippine Airlines (PAL) management and its labor union, lawmakers filed House Resolutions for the protection on the rights of employees.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao party-list Rep. Maximo Rodriguez, Jr. have filed a bill protecting the security of tenure of employees.

The proposed measure expands the definition of regular employees to include those who have rendered at least one year of service, whether continuous or broken and whether or not the service is usually necessary or desirable in the usual trade/business of the employer.

"The PAL problem is based on the fact that usual and necessary positions in PAL are now being contractualized. We should protect our workers from being dismissed because they are given or made them contractual workers," said Rodriguez.

"You cannot prolong the contractualization if the position is usual and necessary in the course of business. But contractualization has been done in so many companies to save money for the employers," he said.

Under the law, Rodriguez said, a contractual employee can become regular after he/she has rendered six months of duty and become entitled to the privileges of regular employees.
But, he said, this has been circumvented.

On the other hand, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano filed House Resolution No. 111, which seeks to investigate alleged PAL's threat to retrench more than 2,600 of its employees, claiming that their actions are valid exercise of a management prerogative.

"It is but proper and necessary to ensure that workers be protected from illegal retrenchments which are based merely on highly questionable claims of bankruptcy," said Mariano.

For Tarlac Rep. Susan Yap, she said that Congress must do its share and conduct hearings to get to the bottom of the problem.

"Our country has yet to recover from the losses experienced last year due to natural disasters. The country cannot afford this man-made disaster at this time," said Yap.

"We must find a quick solution to this dispute so as to address more losses that our economy may suffer. We must also look into possible measure that would help avoid these kinds of scenarios in the future. The government must step into the dispute because it already incurred, and continues to incur a negative impact in our tourism and national economy," she said.