Review conditions for government eligibility

Per Civil Service Commission (CSC) data in June 2023, there are about 1.97 million government personnel in career and noncareer positions and more than 832,000 were hired as contractual or job-order workers. Contractualization is one of the most controversial labor practices in the Philippines. After all, employees under contractual or casual appointments are entitled to the same benefits enjoyed by regular employees.

Meanwhile, CSC chair Karlo Nograles has urged top graduates (summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude) to consider joining the government to infuse new talents into government service. This is provided under Presidential Decree No. 907 or the “Granting Civil Service Eligibility to College Honor Graduates.”

Sometime in November 2022, the Department of Budget and Management reiterated that there are more than 160,000 unfilled positions in the national government, while 62,000 workers hold nonpermanent positions. We are aware that regular positions in government require civil service eligibility for professional and nonprofessional levels.

In this regard, I would like to propose that the CSC seriously consider a special form of equivalent eligibility considering, among others, educational qualifications and length of service/tenure that a contractual had continuously worked with the government, i.e., professional eligibility could be replaced by eight years service tenure and subprofessional eligibility by five years service tenure. If doable, the CSC could recommend to the President to issue an executive order regarding this special form of eligibility, the objective of which is to convert the status of contractual employee to a permanent one as well as fill up the numerous unfilled positions in the government.

If successfully implemented, the government will send a strong signal to private companies to likewise reconsider the hiring of regular rather than contractual employees.

In this regard, the government can still become a model employer.