OPPOSITION TO TWO-YEAR PROBATIONARY PERIOD GAINS GROUND - Manila Bulletin

Published October 18, 2019, 6:48 PM
By Chito Chavez

Militant labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) has rejected House Bill 4802 which seeks to extend the probationary period of a casual employee from six months to two years.

In deploring the proposed measure, filed by Probinsyano Ako party-list Rep. Bonito Singson, the group said the bill illustrates how our lawmakers are“completely out of touch with the conditions of the ordinary Filipinos and seek to further aggravate them”.

“The proposed Labor Code amendments of Rep. Singson is but a cheap trick by capitalists like himself to optimize their profits by delaying workers’ regularization and entitlement to benefits,” said Luke Espiritu, president of BMP.

Espiritu insisted Singson’s claim that the current six-month period is insufficient in determining a worker’s qualification is a flimsy excuse to further exploit workers.

“The workers should not be faulted for the lack of mechanisms of companies to train and ascertain the quality of work of their employees,” he added.

Espiritu argued that businesses have already profited from the productivity of their employees for the first six months of employment.

“They merely want to cheapen labor further and make the job market more competitive,” Espiritu noted.

Singson is the younger brother of Luis “Chavit” Singson, a known businessman who owns a string of hotels, restaurants and fast food franchises in the Ilocos region.

The group said that they will formally ask the Department of Labor and Employment to check into the conditions of the employees of the companies owned by Singson.

“If this is Rep. Singson’s general outlook on workers’ rights, then it is most likely that his employees are bereft of benefits and their labor rights are violated,” Espiritu maintained.

Singson claimed that workers will have a better chance to improve their performance, meet their targets and learn new skills that will allow them to meet the required standards set by the employer.

“No matter how much he sugarcoats his proposal, this will only bolster the deprivation of workers’ rights and their equitable share in the fruits of their labor,” the labor leader said,

BMP chairman Leody de Guzman assailed the proposal, saying t the bid to end contractualization has not been realized and yet the lawmaker wants to extend the probationary period of the contractual workers.

BMP has long campaigned for the abolition of all forms of contractualization.