Long delayed and much deserved.

Still, better late than never.

The struggle for justice in the workplace has paid off.     

In a major victory for labor coinciding with the country’s celebration of Bonifacio Day and an unprecedented employment policy, the Aquino adminisration unwrapped an early holiday package for casual workers that would approximate benefits available to regular  employees.

President Aquino has thus granted what his predecessors have failed or refused to give to the most exploited segment of the country’s working population.       

Contractual workers can now look forward to a merrier Christmas and a happier new year enjoying security of tenure and other benefits that are provided to regular workers.

Amid widespread contractualization of the labor force, the government is implementing a new policy that would provide better working conditions and protection for contractual workers.

The new policy would benefit about 200,000 workers employed in more than 2,600 companies nationwide.

Contractualization means replacing regular workers with temporary workers who receive lower wages with less benefits or none at all.

These temporary workers are sometimes called contractuals, trainees, apprentices, helpers, casuals, piece raters, agency-hired, project employees, etc. They do the work of regular workers for a specified and limited period of time, usually less than six months. The work they do is “desirable and necessary” for the company’s survival, but they never become regular employees even if they get rehired repeatedly under new contracts.

Starting December 5, the Department of Labor and Employment would enforce a new regulation for companies engaged in contracting and sub-contracting.

Under the new regulation, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said, contractual employees would be entitled to benefits provided under the Labor Code such as 13th month pay, overtime pay, and retirement benefits.

Baldoz said contractual workers would also be entitled to Social Security System, Pag-Ibig, and PhilHealth benefits aside from the right to self organize and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.

“Under the new department order, contractors or subcontractors are now required to submit proof of payment of remittance to SSS, PhilHealth and BIR which are not present in previous regulation,” she was quoted by a major broadsheet as saying.

The lady DoLE chief added that the new regulation would provide clear-cut rules on contracting and subcontracting and thus curb abuses being committed against contractual workers.

“Amid the global phenomenon of contractualization, we will promote job generation, professionalize contracting and subcontracting arrangements and weed out the fly-by-night contractors,” she explained.

Baldoz said the new policy would also prohibit repeated hiring of employees for a five-month duration or what has become known as “555” and “endo” or “end of contract” system.