Some one million Filipinos will be unemployed if the government will ban contractualization soon, a forum on labor practice warned last Wednesday.
“Removing or banning contractualization would mean taking away productive jobs from one million Filipinos and would set the economy back,” said Rhoda Caliwara, new president of Philippine Association of Legitimate Services Contractors Inc., during a forum on contractualization and casualization at the St. Luke’s Medical Center, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.
Caliwara pointed out that contractualization is a worldwide trend and generally acceptable labor practice. “These trends are increasing due to the fast-paced business rends being influenced by mobility through technology,” she said.
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Philippines employed some 600,000 contractual workers, she said. In 2015, the number of contractual workers has gone up to 850,000.
“If seasonality, probationary, casual, and apprenticeship employment will be included this year, the number of workers that will benefit from contractualization is projected to hit more than one million workers,” Caliwara said.
She also said that service contracting is seen also to provide decent jobs to many Filipinos in 2016.