Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Government contract of service (COS) and job order (JO) workers whose contracts would expire in December this year no longer have to worry about their employment after President Marcos extended their contracts.
Marcos made this decision during a sectoral meeting with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and the Commission on Audit (COA) in Malacañan on Wednesday, April 24.
According to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), the President instructed government agencies to reeducate and train COS and JO workers to develop their skills and capabilities to help them pass the civil service examination.
“The goal is to build a pool of government workers that can perform and qualify for government’s plantilla positions,” he said.
In addition, the President wanted the agencies to conduct a thorough study of the current state of the government workforce, including the COS and JOs.
“Pag-aralan natin (Let’s study it), just look at the numbers, the data on average, government agencies. How many of their employees are contractual?” he said.
“How many items are in their plantilla proper are not filled? How many are contractual as a percentage of the total number of employees? [Because] the percentages are one of the most important. Then [the next we’ll look at] is average. [It will] give us an idea of how people are using the system,” he added.
COS refers to the engagement of the services of an individual, private firm, other government agency, non-government agency, or international organization as a consultant, learning service provider or technical expert to undertake a special project or job within a specific period.
JO, on the other hand, refers to piece work (pakyaw), intermittent or emergency jobs to be undertaken for a short duration and for a specific piece of job.
Earlier, the CSC-COA-DBM (Department of Budget and Management) Joint Circular (JC) No. 1, s. 2017, established the rules and regulations governing the hiring of COS and JO workers in government until December 31, 2018.
Subsequent issuances such as COA-DBM JC No. 2, s. 2020 and COA-DBM JC No. 2, s. 2022, extended the transitional period for the engagement of COS and JO workers to Dec. 31, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024, respectively, to allow government agencies to reassess their organizational and staffing requirements.
According to Malacañang, the number of COS and JO workers in the government has increased since the issuance of CSC-COA-DBM JC No. 1, s. 2017.
As of June 30 last year, 29.68 percent (832,812) of the government workforce were COS and JO workers, a 29.71-percent increase from 2022.
The top five national government agencies with the highest number of COS and JO workers are the following:
- Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH): 29,275
- Department of Health (DOH): 18,264
- Department of Education (DepEd): 15,143
- Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD): 13,770
- Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR): 10,990
