Marcos extends contracts of gov’t job order workers

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has extended the contracts of government job order employees due to expire by year’s end to Dec. 31, 2025, according to the Palace.

In a statement on Thursday, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said the President made the decision at a meeting with officials from the Departments of Budget and Management and Interior and Local Government, as well as the Civil Service Commission and the Commission on Audit Wednesday.

Mr. Marcos also ordered the agencies to come up with programs to upskill contract-of-service and job-order workers in collaboration with higher learning institutions to prepare them to pass the civil service examination.

“The goal is to build a pool of government workers than can perform and qualify for government plantilla positions,” he said.

The agencies were also ordered to conduct a study on the state of the government workforce, including contract-based workers.

Contract-of-service work is the engagement of services with a specific job description for a specific period, the PCO said.

Job order services are usually emergency or intermittent short-term jobs.

As of June 30, 2023, 29.68% (832,812) of government workers were job order employees, up nearly 30% from 2022, the PCO said.

The Palace said the Department of Public Works and Highways had the most job order workers last year at 29,275, followed by the Department of Health with 18,264, and the Department of Education at 15,143. — John Victor D. Ordoñez