The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), with the support of its constituency, has registered its opposition to eight (8) Security of Tenure House Bills that were subject of a hearing by the House Committee on Labor and Employment on December 8, 2010.

Among these bills and their respective authors are House Bill (HB) No. 303 introduced by Akbayan Party List Rep. Walden Bello, HB 891 by TUCP Party List Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, HB 892 by TUCP Party List Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, HB 1049 by Reps. Rufus Rodriguez and Maximo Rodriguez, HB 1060 by Reps. Rufus Rodriguez and Maximo Rodriguez, HB 1451 by Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo, HB 2983 by Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito, and HB 3402 by Rep. Emmeline Aglipay.

Within this group of bills are provisions that seek to suppress if not outlaw job contracting and outsourcing as well as others that would coerce enterprises on pain of civil and/or penal sanctions, to provide permanent and regular employment for all types of workers, skilled or unskilled, regardless of the need for their services, whether temporary, casual, contractual or fixed term.

In the Senate, a similar measure has been filed by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada – Senate Bill (SB) No. 672 or the proposed Act to Strengthen Security of Tenure and SB 858 or the proposed Act Prescribing Work-Arrangements Based on Security of Tenure as well by Sen. Antonio Trillanes – SB 171 or the proposed Act Rationalizing the Security of Tenure of Employees in the Private Sector, Strengthening Their Rights, Prohibiting Contracting Out of Work and for Other Purposes.

Altogether, these bills deny enterprises the needed flexibility in the employment and deployment of their workforce by restricting probationary employment to not more than 6 months and also make it unlawful to engage in labor-only contracting.