CIVIL SERVANTS WITH 5-YEAR SERVICE
SHOULD BE GRANTED ELIGIBILITY

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) is seeking the approval of a legislation that will entitle casual or temporary state workers with at least five years of continuous, efficient government service to civil service eligibility.

Pimentel's proposal is contained in Senate Bill 3063 which will amend Republic Act 6850 which provides that affords temporary employees who have rendered a total of seven years of government service to civil service eligibility.

The proposal, he said, is pursuant to the constitutional mandate (section 2, paragraph 6, Article IX-B of the Constitution) which provides: "Temporary employees in the government shall be given protection as may be provided by law."

"Nowadays, non-permanent employees, more often than not, are poorly compensated, receive nominal bonuses, and are not well-provided with comprehensive health care, in spite of the long number of years that they have devoted in government offices. By this long service in government, the implication is that these employees have demonstrated competence, efficiency and diligence in the performance of their duties," Pimentel said.

The author also cited section 2, paragraph 2, Article IX-B of the Constitution, which requires that "appointments in the civil service shall be made according to merit and fitness to be determined, as far as practicable and except in positions which are policy determining, primarily confidential, or highly technical, by competitive examinations."

In seeking the immediate enactment of the measure, Pimentel said "it may be reasonable and fair to consider the employee's competence, efficiency, diligence, loyalty, length of service, educational attainment, and trainings attended as compliance with the standards of merit and fitness set forth in the Constitution."

"We ask that Senate Bill 3063 be enacted into law to give justice where it is due to the lowliest ranked among our civil servants: the casual or contractual government employees."