Contractors should treat their workers fairly

To be fair, not all contractors are guilty of ghost public works projects or rampant violators of labor laws. But in my own research as professor of labor laws for more than four decades in a number of law schools and universities, I can testify that many contractors are notorious exploiters of labor.

- Atty. Josephus B. Jimenez

For this article, I shall focus only on the perpetuation of the casual and contractual status of regular employees and permanent employees and thus, the repeated violations of the law on security of tenure. The Labor Code provides that employment shall be deemed regular when the employee has been engaged to perform activities, even when there is a written contract or verbal agreement whereby the worker is made to declare his employment isn’t regular or permanent. The same provision mentions project employees, seasonal and casual workers.

The Supreme Court reiterates not all works in construction should be sweepingly classified as project employment. There are many that should be deemed regular and permanent. I can support this Supreme Court observation by citing a number of cases. Foremost in my mind is the case of DM Consunji, Inc. and David Consunji v. Estelito Jamin, GR no 192514. In this case, Jamin was a skilled carpenter who was connected with DMCI for 31 years. He was even sent to Brunei twice to help work in constructing the famous Istana Palace.