Workers under the job order-contract of service (JOCOS) arrangement, represented by Kawani Laban sa Kontraktwalisasyon (Kalakon), are calling for job security and gratuity pay for all employees in government agencies and institutions. At their November 25 protest, they assailed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr for stating that JOCOS workers should serve as a “buffer” for regular positions in the government bureaucracy.

“We believe that the JOCOS scheme undermines the employer-employee relationship and deprives workers of their fundamental rights to job security and freedom of association,” Kalakon stated.

Describing JOCOS workers as a “buffer” is “redundant”, the group said, because contractual and probationary employees already serve as a buffer for regular positions. The group called on the Marcos administration to take decisive action to regularize all qualified workers, grant civil service eligibility to those who have been in service for more than three years, and reinstate the regularization process in all agencies and departments that has been the previous practice in the public sector.

The group also demanded that JOCOS workers be given gratuity pay, particularly holiday pay equivalent to one month’s salary before Christmas.

Reports from 2023 record approximately 832,812 JOCOS government workers. They make up nearly 29.68% of the total civilian workforce in the bureaucracy. The top five agencies with the most JOCOS workers are the Department of Public Works and Highways (29,275 workers), Department of Health (18,264), Department of Education (15,143), Department of Social Welfare and Development (13,770), and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (10,990).