Despite the termination of 700 Job Order (JO) workers, there are still around 1,200 JOs working at the Cebu City government whose employment is in a precarious state.
They are now under tight scrutiny to determine whether their services are really needed by the city.
Meanwhile, the 700 JOs whose contracts ended yesterday could be reconsidered for renewal if their department heads would submit a report on how their services were utilized, where they were actually assigned and under what office budget their salaries were charged to.
“About two years ago we had a resolution in the Council that all JOs will have to pass the Council so that we could verify and we could see. There was an ad hoc committee created for JOs. But it was followed for a while and after that, no more,” Acting Cebu City Mayor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña said.
She added that some of those terminated JOs had no accomplishment report, which was a requirement in reconsidering their renewal.
Osmeña also emphasized that there should be transparency as to where the salary of a JO is being charged to.
She made an example of a JO who was paid P1,200 a day, charged to the budget of the Accelerated Social Amelioration Program (ASAP), but working under the City Administrator’s office.
“Can you charge that? But she is under the city administrator. She is there. (There is another JO), she is being paid P800 a day. Her salary is being charge to Accounting. But she is in CREMDEC (Cebu City Resource Management and Development Center). Things like that ba. Diba medyo samok?” she said.
Osmeña said that if the 700 JOs received the minimum wage of P370 a day, the city government paid up to P68 million in a year.
Since there are about 2,000 Job Order workers, including the 700 terminated workers, the city government will have to pay about P195 million a year.
“The money could be used for scholarships. Apparently it has a more lasting effect. It is an investment in a future.
There’s no better investment than investment in the future your children and grandchildren,” she said
Moreover, she said it was not fair to keep these employees as Job Orders because they were not considered employees of City Hall and thus did not enjoy the benefits given to employees.
“These are not projects any more, these are programs na, diba?” she said
She said that the City Hall already has 5,000 regular and casual employees. If casual employees are doing their job, then the city does not need thousands of Job Orders, she added.