SEN. Robin Padilla has filed a bill seeking to grant civil service eligibility to casual or contractual employees who have been working in government for at least five years to allow them to become regular employees.
Under Senate Bill No. 234, casual or contractual employees can avail of the benefit upon meeting certain requirements, among them the submission of a certificate of no pending administrative case and no conviction for any offense or crime involving “moral turpitude, disgraceful or immoral conduct, dishonesty, examination irregularity, drunkenness or addiction to drugs.”
They should also not have been dishonorably discharged from the military service or dismissed for cause from any civilian position in the government.
Covered under the bill are casual or contractual employees occupying first level career civil service positions in the clerical, trades and custodial service involving non-professional or sub-professional work in a non-supervisory or supervisory capacity.
“It is high time that we grant eligibility to our committed casual or contractual employees of the government in order to open opportunities for higher salaried positions, boost their morale and keep them motivated, and enhance their productivity to the benefit of the public,” Padilla said.
“For the longest time, the government has gained notoriety for denying its employees opportunities to be regularized,” he added.
Padilla said the Civil Service Commission is authorized to grant eligibility to “qualified individuals,” including Bar/Board passers, barangay health workers eligibility, barangay nutrition, scholar eligibility, barangay official eligibility, electronic data processing specialist eligibility, foreign school honor graduate eligibility, honor graduate eligibility, Sanggunian member eligibility, scientific and technological specialist eligibility, skills eligibility category II, and Veteran Preference Rating.
Citing data from the Civil Service Commission, Padilla said some 660,390 out of 2.4 million government employees in 2017 (27 percent) were under “job order” or “contract of service” status.
“Most of our casual or contractual government employees cannot seek regular employment because they are not civil service eligible,” Padilla said.
