EMPLOYEE RIGHTS TO FULL EMPLOYMENT AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

1. The right to work and full employment More than 15 million people, nearly one quarter of the United States work force, were unemployed by 1932, three years after the stock market crash that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal program in the 1930s to counteract unemployment and other problems caused by the Great Depression. As part of his New Deal policy, Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935. Called the Work Projects Administration after 1939, the WPA employed 9 million people in various public works projects between 1935 and 1943.

Two years before Martial Law, 1970, was considered by many as a year of terrible economic hardship in the Philippines. Our nation was then in the grip of an unemployment crisis because of the global energy crunch, which shut down many of the factories and nearly bankrupted our economy. That year of trials and tribulations saw the beginning of a massive overseas employment program, which opened up some three million remunerative jobs for Filipinos in 120 countries across the globe. 1
The government decided to turn the crisis on its head and seized the opportunity to send hundreds of thousands of our surplus manpower to the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia. This vast outflow opened up the overseas earnings that greatly reinforced our balance of payments, augmented domestic buying power, sent millions of children to school and created thousands of small businesses throughout the country. The new millennium, quite similar to what occurred in the 1970s, witnesses a new wave of Overseas Filipino Workers, when professionals of the healthcare industry, like hot potatoes, have become marketable in the West, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Thousands of our physical therapists, nurses, nursing aides and caregivers applied for work, claimed their place in the sun and became immigrants abroad. Because nurses were so much in demand, around 3,000 Filipino medical doctors studied nursing to expedite getting US visa, work in the US and find greener pastures. 2 Sending OFWs abroad has its good news and bad news. The program worked to tide the country over its periodic bouts with economic and financial crises over a period of two decades. Thats the good news. But theres also the downside to the success story, which entails some prohibitive social costs like separation of children & parents, and disintegration of family values. Reasons why work is fundamental WHY? First Reason Survival needs Second Reason Natural obligation to support others Third Reason Psychological need

Addressed to: Self Dependents Self

The right to work is fundamental to all The right to work is part and parcel of the right to life and the duty to sustain it. The right to work is fundamental because it flows from nature, as it is inborn in every person. Man is created to work, to till the soil and raise cattle, to subdue the earth and its natural resources. Social responsibility, which is both corporate and governmental, means making an attempt to fill up this innate vacuum in man.
1. People work to survive. The first moral-philosophical reason why people have to work is to satisfy some survival needs, those unavoidable physical and biological necessities in life. Theres no need to explain why basic survival requirements necessarily include the compulsion to live with honor and dignity. And how can society expect someone to live with honor and dignity when that someone doesnt even have adequate work? 2. The second reason is the natural obligation to support our dependents. With work, entrepreneurship or any means of livelihood, we provide shelter, education and daily bread for our dependents. What happens now if the breadwinner is jobless? 3. And the third reason is psychological, which means we work to gain and maintain self-respect. In this sense, work becomes the highway to develop oneself. With selfdevelopment comes our calling to cooperate in social progress, peace and order and in the betterment of the world. Needless to say, joblessness means restlessness, inasmuch as joblessness breeds all sorts of crime, looting, mob rule and social disorder. The right to work is so fundamental that, even if there is a just cause for dismissal and after a due process, any legislative court may rule against dismissal from work due to the fact that the right to work is a basic privilege very much related to the right to life.3

2. The right to equal employment opportunities

On May 16, 1974, Standard Oil Company of California, the business ran by John Rockefeller, agreed to pay $2 million in back wages to 160 persons between the ages of 40 and 65 who had been discharged. The same thing happened to AT&T Co., when it reached an agreement with the federal government on May 30 to provide $30 million in back pay and higher salaries to minority-group and female managerial employees who had been discriminated against by the company's salary and promotion policies. Equality in employment embraces all without discrimination: Women, the aged and racial minorities. 4 The right to equal job opportunity prohibits business employers from discriminating against otherwise-qualified people with disabilities. Employers cannot and should not discriminate in job application procedures; the hiring, advancement or discharge of employees; employee compensation; job training; and any other terms, conditions and privileges of employment. Philippine Airlines Employees: Retirement age

On December 23, 2010, the Department of Labor has favored in a ruling/resolution the Flight Attendants' and Stewards' Association of the Philippines (FASAP)s demands on retirement age and economic package. 5 PAL management had moved to set the retirement age of flight attendants depending on when the date of their employment and on their gender. Under the old collective bargaining agreement, the retirement age for female flight attendants was set as follows: 55 years old if hired before November 1996 45 years old if hired after 1996 to 2000 40 years old if hired after November 2000 Male flight attendants, however, were forced to retire only when they reach age 60. The different retirement ages for flight attendants performing the same services constitute a clear discrimination of their right to equal work opportunity It is in this light that setting the compulsory retirement age of sixty (60) yearsboth for male and female cabin crew personnelis fair and reasonable. Individuals with disabilities An otherwise-qualified individual with a disability is someone who meets the requirements for skill, experience, education and other conditions needed for the position and who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodation in employment consists of a variety of modifications or adjustments, which may include changing the work environment, or the way the work is customarily performed, to permit someone with a disability to fulfill the jobs essential functions, and ensuring that the company parking garage accommodates employees who use wheelchairs. The virtue of justice obliges the government and every employer or company to maximize benefits for them and this means more business institutions must be willing to share bountiful resources to the marginalized members of society. In some countries, for example, disabled and old members of society are given the chance to work in fast-food chains and some factories on certain days of the week, and given the opportunity to receive appropriate salaries. Ive encountered senior citizens being employed by McDonalds restaurants in Hong Kong and Singapore. Closer to home, in Tagbilaran (Bohol) and Cebu City, there are stores and cafeteria whose servers and waitresses are deaf and mute. There was a golden time that Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, hired 20-30 disabled persons from a local school for the deaf and mute. These physically handicapped workers do their job silently but swiftly, their hands and eyes darting and sifting through a sea of empty Coke glass bottles disgorged by delivery trucks virtually every hour. The bottles are scrutinized for any form of chipped finish, a process that requires the concentration of a chess master, the unerring eye of a marksman and the patience of Job. 6

CSR and ethics

Each person has a fundamental right to be treated as a free and thinking individual and all other individuals have a correlative moral duty to treat him/her as such. The golden rule applies everywhere and all the time.
Its an anecdote and fictional. It might be well to ponder this humorous tale about a La Salle graduate applying for a job in a company. Unfortunately the company's personnel manager who is also the interviewer happens to be an Ateneo graduate, and is bent on rejecting the La Salle graduate by reason of sheer discrimination. During the interview: PM (Personnel Manager): Mr. Cruz, why is the sky blue? APPLICANT: (confused but determined) Because when our atmosphere receives light from the sun, it absorbs all other colors of the visible light spectrum except blue which it reflects by reason of molecular..........(elaborates). PM: (unimpressed) Wrong! The sky is blue because God is an Atenean. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Next question - Why is the grass green? APPLICANT: (devastated and uncertain) Err... Uh... Because God is also a La Sallian? PM: I'm sorry Mr. Cruz, but you are not the man for the job. My Goodness! Haven't you heard of chlorophyll?

When management discriminates someone, it consciously or unconsciously affirms that one group is inferior or subordinate to another group, that people "from the province" are less qualified than city residents, that women are less capable than men, that Chinese are better than Filipinos. Such degrading stereotypes undermine the selfesteem of those groups against whom the stereotypes are directed and thereby violate their fundamental right to be treated as equals. 7
Employers arbitrarily prevent others to climb the promotional ladder when they do not provide equal treatment and equal opportunity for all. Thats Jurassic corporate behavior. Discriminatory practices are not consistent with CSR, which upholds that all are equal in essence and dignity, and that all men and women have the same basic rights and duties.

EMPLOYEE RIGHTS TO JUST WAGE, SECURITY OF TENURE, AND DUE PROCESS

In a speech he prepared for his August 21, 1983 homecoming (a speech he never got to deliver) Senator Benigno Ninoy Aquino Jr. wrote: The Filipinos ask for nothing more, but will surely ask for nothing less than all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution... the most sacred legacies from the founding fathers. 3. The right to just wage and compensation Before deciding whether wages are fair, many things have to be considered, saidPope Leo XIII in solemnity. Entirely false is the principle, widely propagated today, that the

worth of labor and therefore the equitable return to be made for it should equal the worth of its net result." 8 Unavoidably, we enter into some controversial issues in labor-management relations. In the legal sense, the just wage is the minimum wage. It is the wage that will not only enable the worker to meet the bare cost of living, but will also provide a means of desirable improvements in his mode of living. Just wage is not only the bread to win but also the means to enjoy life. For the wage to be just, some allowances for contingencies must be considered because common sense imposes, for instance, that wage may increase accordingly when prices of commodities increase. The minimum wage is set by the government to protect low-paid employees against all types of exploitation by setting a floor in which their remuneration cannot further fall. In spite of this, more often than not, you still hear cases involving several workers who agreed to a wage that is way below the minimum wage simply because there is no other means of livelihood available for them. CSR insists that labor contracts must always be determined by justice, and by one principle greater and more ancient than the free consent of contracting parties, namely, that the wage should not be less than enough to support a worker. This also includes the means of livelihood for his wife and children. Everyone has a basic right to just and proper wage, determined according to some criteria of justice and of course in proportion to the available resources. A just wage is a means to provide for the worker and his family a manner of living in keeping with the dignity of the human person; anything less is morally unacceptable. Unfortunately the daily minimum wage of P300 in 2003 was not enough to support a typical family of four during that period. Pope Pius XI, in his papal encyclical Divini Redemptoris, 52, has taught with authority: But social justice cannot be said to have been satisfied as long as workingmen are denied a salary that will enable them to secure proper sustenance for themselves and for their families; as long as they are denied the opportunity of acquiring a modest fortune and forestalling the plague of universal pauperism, as long as they cannot make suitable provision through public or private insurance for old age, for periods of illness and unemployment.

Family wage. Over and above what is known as the just wage, there exists a compensation for the worker called a family wage. By estimation, it is substantially higher than the minimum wage received by an adult who is responsible for a family. Family wage refers to the remuneration, which will be sufficient for properly maintaining a family and for providing a solid security for its future. 9
It may sound traditional or conservative, but family wage is a single salary given to the head of the family without the other spouse having to take up gainful employment outside the home or a type of a social measure, so that mothers can devote themselves exclusively to raising children and managing homes. Family wage may correspond to the actual needs, that is, to the number of dependents who are not in a position to assume proper responsibility for their own lives. The nobility of the

idea of the family wage is for one spouse, usually the mother, to devote herself exclusively to the proper training and education of her children. As expected, arguments and counter-arguments were raised regarding the application of the idea of family wage into todays society. Leading edge corporations such as San Miguel Corporation, Bank of Philippine Islands, Metrobank, PLDT, and Petron, and the global ones like Nestl, Procter and Gamble, Shell, Exxon, Texas Instruments and others can definitely provide the living wage and benefits from which the worker can secure the health, decency, well-being and an improved quality of life not only for himself but also his immediate family. For instance, the medical benefits that include expensive drugs and doctors fee are extended to spouse, parents and children of the employee. The reasons provided by Pope Pius XI for the provision of family wage and benefits are practical and commonsensical. Mothers will above all devote their work to the home and the things connected with it, the Holy Father explained. Intolerable is the abuse whereby mothers of families, because of the insufficiency of the father's salary, are forced to engage in gainful occupations outside the domestic walls to the neglect of their own proper care and duties, particularly the education of their children. 10 4. The right to security of tenure Security of tenure is a basic right of both public and private employees. Security of tenure means that, in case of regular employment, the services of any one of the workers cannot just be terminated except for a just cause or after a due process. The employee right to due process consists of an objective evaluation of his/her case, a fair hearing and a chance to appeal, a process very fundamental in firing and even in demoting. As you can see, this right is legal, moral and social. In case of unjust dismissal, the law provides that the employee should be entitled to reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and other privileges and to his full back wages, inclusive of allowances and other benefits. These are computed from the time his compensation was withheld from him up to the time of his actual reinstatement. Corporate social responsibility, however, goes beyond what the law requires. I must say that the right to security of tenure is essentially linked to other fundamental rights (rights to work and life) so much so, even if there is a just cause for dismissal, business may still rule against dismissal from work because this right is essentially related to the right to life and the natural duty to sustain it. The right to work and the right to life obviously take precedence over other considerations. Both rights are born like twin brothers, for they are complementary. 5. The right to due process and a grievance procedure Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (1939-62), Felix Frankfurter gave a general description of due process, and its this: the sporting idea of fair play. They say sports have fair play, whereas the law has due process. Due process is the procedure by which an

employee can appeal a decision or action made by a superior in order to get a rational explanation of the decision and objective review of its propriety. CSR requires that business listens to this appeal. Everyone is entitled to the cold neutrality of the impartial judge that we believe can bring a fair trial. In the workplace, due process is the right of the worker to grievance, arbitration, intervention or some other fair method to evaluate hiring, firing, promotion or demotion. Under this right, all rank and file workers of any organization are considered autonomous persons and must be treated fairly and justly. The essence of due process is distilled in the immortal cry of Themistocles to Alcibiades: Strike! But hear me first. Due process does not ask others to do what they ought to do; it is but a plea for fair treatment. It does not infringe on the employersprima facie right to organize, maximize and dispose of his/her business, for whatever happens to business is substantially the employers accountability. Corporate social responsibility, through the employee right to due process, merely restricts the superior powers of the employer and the latters individual prerogatives springing from his right to property ownership. The employee right to due process may also be considered a check and balance on the employers oppressive doctrine of employment at will. 11

Conditions of a due process The employee right to due process is a fundamental right. By reason of its universality and fundamentality, the right to due process is actually everybody's basic right to be heard. It is socially responsible that managements exclusive right to hire, fire, promote and demote is balanced by the employee right to due process, which consists of a fair hearing, a chance to appeal and an objective evaluation of his case.
How else can the employee be guaranteed and assured of his human dignity and basic rights except when business respects his right to be heard. This fundamental right to due process will ensure all employees that management does not handle them capriciously, arbitrarily, unpredictably or vindictivelybecause, whether we like it or not, there are employers who do. Due process refers to the fairness of the procedure by which managers and employers implement sanctions on their subordinates. Fairness here means uprightness, rectitude or correct action. And for the procedure to be fair and just, the following conditions must be present: 1. Clear and simple notice of rules. While being employed, it is the duty of the employer to give his workers clear and simple notice of rules and regulations they need to follow. 2. Consistent administration of these rules. Employers should administer these rules and regulations consistently and without discriminations. 3. Fair and impartial hearing. Employers should provide a fair and impartial hearing to those workers who are suspected of having violated the rules.

4. Objective determination of the facts. Employers should design, call and arrange a hearing process the only purpose of which is to determine the truth as objectively as possible. 5. Non-liability of the innocent. Employers should not hold any worker liable for matters over which he/she has no authority, jurisdiction and control.

EMPLOYEE RIGHTS TO GOOD WORKING CONDITIONS, SOCIAL SECURITY, AND TRAINING

6. The right to good working conditions Shiela M. Dumapi was once a working student. She shares her personal experience of hazards and risks while at work: While in college I worked as a member of the crew at a popular fast food store. I was assigned at the closing time, the wee hours of the night, when most young people like myself were supposedly staying at home. Latecomers would regularly order French fries, and oftentimes frying pans would be full of boiling vegetable oil. That in itself was hazardous. The floor was usually wet due to cleaning and physical preparation for the next day's operations. That was part of the hazards I braved each time I reported to work. Corporate social responsibility is concerned about the right to working conditions where the physical health of the workers is not endangered, morals are safeguarded, and the young people's normal development is not impaired. I quickly add that female employees have the right to working conditions in accordance with their gender requirements and their duties as wives and mothers. I only hope and pray, with tens of thousands of Filipino parents, that what we hear in the ever-expanding call centers is not entirely correct, and that working in BPO companies is healthymorally, emotionally, and physically. In designing good working conditions for employees, it is socially responsible that the employer ensures proper illumination and ventilation in the workplace, availability of fire exits and extinguishers, occupational personnel services like first aid, family welfare and other services. Although at times ignored by some employers, these worker-friendly requirements are basic. If the structures and surroundings of a business system in general are such as to compromise human dignity, life and health, then that business system may be considered unjust and socially irresponsible, even if it is factually making a lot of money. If any working condition in particular constitutes in any way an impediment to the worker's personal growth and causing harm to his/her body and soul, such working condition is socially irresponsible, ethically improper and unfair. 1 Social responsibility of business regarding work hazards

Best selling author Scott Adams, in Dilbert Principle, points out the following business gimmick as one of the great lies of management: Performance will be adequately rewarded. We reward risk-takers. Many people, perhaps due to economic reasons, freely and knowingly accept the risks and hazards in the workplace in exchange for added compensation. In special cases, such as those assigned to construction of a high-rise building, journalists and soldiers during war, workers should be fully compensated for assuming the risk in accordance with the juridical requirements. Media practitioners, linesmen, et al Like construction workers, certain field researchers, miners, Meralco and PLDT linemen also make a difficult balancing act between life and death as they go about their work everyday. Veteran British ITN news reporter Terry Lloyd and several other journalists were killed while taking a live coverage of US-UK military campaign in Iraq in March 2003. 2 American journalist Ernie Pyles humanistic writing was popular with the public during World War II. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his war reporting, Pyle was killed one year later by Japanese machine-gun fire. About 600 journalists, photographers and cameramen were embedded in US-UK battle ships, tanks and fighting helicopters during 2003 Iraq War. Requirements Common sense, let alone corporate citizenship, requires that employers implement the juridical obligations as contained in the Labor Code vis--vis hazardous jobs. In fairness to workers, the minimum employers should do is to provide ample and necessary protective devices to workers or at the very least exert effort to make the construction site worker friendly. In concrete, employers are required to provide for the following: Offer wages that reflect the risk-premium prevalent in other similar but competitive labor market; Provide employees with suitable health insurance programs; and Collect information on health hazards that coincide with a given job and make such information available to the employees. In 1997, a world forum about workplace safety and occupational health known as The World Forum on Safety Critical Competence was organized in England. It was a unique center for exchange of knowledge, views, contacts and insights for all managers in major hazard industries, where developing and assessing the competence of people doing safety critical work is vital. In international forums such as this, the single most important philosophy given emphasis is preventioncommercially calculated as better than compensationwhere the bottomline is the philosophy that says: A safe labor is a fruitful labor. 3

7. Right to social security and health benefits The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that the right to social security is a moral and universal right. Accordingly, in Article 25, we read: (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. In practice, the Labor Code translates the right to social security in terms of SSS, Pag-ibig, PhilHealth and ECC benefits. Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Health Maintenance of the Philippines in 1997, former Labor SecretaryLeonardo Quisumbing said that only 23 health maintenance organizations were providing health insurance to an estimated three million Filipino workers. It means that only 10 percent of the country's 30 million strong labor force was actually covered by health insurance. It never changed until 2010. In the same conference, Quisumbing said with emphasis that health care sustains worker's productivity and a healthy workforce is a productive workforce. 8. Right to be trained, to grow and develop Francisco Eizmendi Jr., former President and COO of San Miguel and one of the most respected business executives narrated how he was oriented to the company more than 45 years ago: The first person I went to see was Mr. Villa-Abrille (Manager of the Farola glass plant, a subsidiary of San Miguel then), who introduced me to the various department heads. I was told that I would undergo an orientation program, which would familiarize me with the different functions in Farola. At that time, Farola had carton and plastic operations and spent three, four days in each of these facilities for orientation and training. With patience, endurance and dedication, from an ordinary employee Mr. Eizmendi rose to the highest post in the most prestigious corporation in the Philippines (Business Sun, November 16, 2001). Change (like taxes and death) is inevitable. Change is what philosophers and hi-tech experts refer to as the only permanent thing in the world. Planned changes within the organization (like expansion, acquisition, downsizing or reengineering) will make it necessary for all personnel to update their competencies or acquire new ones. Changecan actually make the knowledge and skills you learned today obsolete in the near future, and thats the reason why there is a need to train. How many times were fed with the idea that training is an empowerment. Always remember that empowerment (development) is not magic; it consists of a few simple steps and a lot of persistence, suggests Business author W. Alan Randolph. 4 Kaizen and productivity Training is a program carefully designed by management, through competent trainers and staff, to develop competencies needed to make you more effective on your present job or better qualified for another job within the same company.

The domino effects of good training CSR requires that business trains and develops its people, for empowerment and for the benefits of business. We shall here enumerate in brief a sort of domino effects of an excellent HR training and development.
1. If leaders and managers are well trained, they in turn can motivate their people for more productive work. The consequence is good working relations and high morale among personnel. 2. If the sales force and front line employees are properly trained and highly motivated, goods/products and services are quickly sold. There is less storage costs for keeping unsold goods/products, muda (Japanese term for waste) in overproduction is avoided and the cost of overhead expenses is minimized. 3. When good working relation and high morale exist among employees, the firm will avoid costly turnovers, incessant complaints and undesirable strikes. 4. When muda, turnovers and complaints are avoided, productivity will definitely increase. 5. When there is increased productivity, slice in the market is larger, profit is higher and returns to investments (ROI) bigger. Excellent HRD and Training Programs, driven by CSR, ensure that the right people with the right competencies are in the right jobs. This is done in accordance with HR planning and forecasting. Training definitely is an excellent tool to enhance performance on the present job and to prepare the employee for a better (future) job by overcoming obsolescence of competencies and skills. Training boosters ones morale, improves job attitude and behavior that all translate into higher job satisfaction. Updating and upgrading surely provides labor associates with new and wider vision that can definitely help in managing their own growth pattern. There lies the social responsibility of employers.

Contractual-ization: Thorn in the Labors Flesh

"Labor contractual-ization is now a subject of fierce debates on the floor of the Lower House of Congress. Some lawmakers are sounding the alarm on the steady growth of both unemployment and underemployment." I stopped for a while and tried to understand the concrete situation of millions of sales ladies in our department stores and giant malls, house helpers, carpenters, gasoline boys, workers in the barber shops and parlors, whose jobs are permanently temporary, simply because they are contractuals. They have no stable jobs, no SSS, no medical insurance, no security of tenurenot to mention the 5.7 million Overseas Filipino Workers who are employed on a contract-to-contract basis, 58% of whom are domestic helpers stationed in four corners of the globe. Further, the new millennium, tagged by management guru Peter F. Drucker as the century of knowledge society, is witnessing the sudden increase of part time jobs even among our professionals. This is happening in spite of the fact that the Filipino labor force in general is globally recognized as technically proficient, highly educated, almost always overskilled, let alone our competitive advantage in the English language. Well, Filipino workers are prioritized among Asians by the United Nations for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq in 2003. The statistics. Contractual-ization is so rampant that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) cannot honestly determine the exact statistics regarding the percentage of the workforce who are under contractual and part-time employment. With a labor force participation rate (LFPR) of 66.3%, which translates to a legitimate labor force of about 42,000,000, the country has an underemployment rate of 25% or roughly 10,500,000 workers. The number of contractual employees however may be greater than this. It seems that the government itself, the largest employer of some 2,500,000 workers, is guilty of perpetuating contractual-ization on the basis of the lack of eligibility on the part of the employees. National agencies and LGUs hire employees on a contractual basis because those hired are not eligible, which is one key factor in the bloated bureaucracy in the public system. Academic discussion in a business ethics class. MBA students raised a question to clarify some issues on contractual-ization,Is it really illegal, unethical and socially irresponsible to contractual-ize labor?

What they were trying to say is that contractualized labor has been there as part and parcel of the big economic picture. At any fastfood chain you and your kids happen to drop by and eat, it is very probable that only a few of the uniformed crew (18-24 years old) who are on duty will become casual, proby or regular employees. The rest will be out of work before the sixth-month deadline imposed by Labor Code. From there some have to renew their contracts while others have to look for another job, usually in another fastfood, and the vicious cycle of contractualization in the fastfood industry continues without ceasing, one student said with a thin air of the blues. He hit the nail on its head. Contractual-ization is a business strategy or practice, validated to be cost effective. However, the fact that it has been with us for a long time doesn't make it correct. A dilemma: choice between underemployment and unemployment. In most cases, on the part of the jobseekers, it's a choice between joblessness and underemployment, a quick option between hunger and at-least-there'shope-for- survival. Although underemployment continues to exist in many various ways, there are no reasons adequate enough to justify contractual-ization. The key principle is that full employment is a fundamental right of every citizen, which means the right to be protected from unemployment and underemployment is basic. In the technical sense contractual-ization is a form of underemployment. The right to adequate work and full employment is essential to all men and women of legal age, as swimming is essential to a fish and flying to a bird (well, most birds). This basic right springs from our intrinsic nature to self-preservation and our innate obligation to support our family, both of which are in accordance with the divine plan. I asked the MBA students to reflect, What could be the raison d'tre why Article 23 was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that says, Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment? I insisted on the basic foundation for full employment. So I asked again, Is the 1987 Philippine Constitution protecting the right to full employment in the following provision: Article 13, Section 3, The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all?

From here we can safely assume that both able and disabled bodies have the natural right to earn a living by a meaningful occupation, a job worthy of the free and thinking person. This basic human right to work and earn a legitimate means of livelihood entails a solemn duty on the part of private business sector and the government to provide ample opportunities for adequate work and full employment. Jobs are not enough. It should be adequate and fullregardless of how beautifully some pundits explain various theories of underemployment. Is contractual-ization socially irresponsible? Without full employment, how can a worker live a life worthy of human dignity and at the same time adequately support his family? How can he purchase groceries with sufficient nutritional value and maintain decent clothing and medical security for his dependents? Will he be able to educate his children at least up to high school and provide them the opportunities to finish college without full employment? As a contractual worker, will he have the chance to build and own a modest home for his family, to save for contingencies, emergencies and old age? It all boils down to the metaphysical nobility of the human dignity, that labo r is sacred because it is created in the image of God. Anything less for labor is sacrilegious. In employment, it is not satisfactory to consider only the legal requirements but also the socio-ethical considerations. One ethical consideration is that the basic right to adequate work and full employment is essentially attached to other fundamental rights, that is, everyone's right to life, the support of his dependence and right to decent living. Contractual-ization can be an open-ended issue inside the MBA case room academic and theoreticalbut the reality is that it is indeed a thorn in our labor's flesh.
MEANINGS
Contractualization or labor contractualization is the replacing of regular workers with temporary workers who receive lower wages with no or less benefits. These temporary workers are also known as sometimes called contractuals, trainees, apprentices, helpers, casuals, piece raters, agency-hired, and project employees, among others. 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 companys survival, but they never become regular employees even if they get rehired repeatedly under new contracts.