Job – the idea of exerting oneself mentally and physically for a living necessity. Having a job means that a person has security over basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, and other demands for survival. 

But what if this job, where you exert yourself mentally and physically does not cater to your needs for your daily survival necessities?

University Growth Spurt 

Benguet State University (BSU) is a bustling academic institution in the northern part of Luzon, specifically located on the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region. Once you are within the campus more than tens of thousands of students reside and grow bigger as academic years go by. This resulted in the need for more facilities and working staff to cater to its booming population of learners. 

The effect of this growing issue resulted in the mass hiring of Contract of Service (COS) workers and Job Orders (JO). According to the Omnibus Rules Implementing Book V of Executive Order (E.O.) No. 292 and Other Pertinent Civil Service Laws, a COS or JO are employees whose services rendered are not considered government services and do not enjoy the benefits enjoyed by government employees. The job order covers piece work or intermittent jobs of short duration not exceeding six months daily.

However, later, COS and JO being recruited to work for the university will face the heavy reality of their employment. 

“Of course, it’s because of the pay. I was familiar with the work and I liked the topic I was teaching. Being able to teach students from different colleges such as nursing and engineering, and knowing that you will teach students that you also taught before,” were the words of a teaching COS staff when asked about her reasons for staying to teach at BSU even though not being paid on time. This issue would span months before they could get the money worth their service and sweat. 

The COS worker, who we will hide the real identity with the name Sally for her safety, was a fresh graduate of BSU and, like any other student, ready to find a job. Looking at the social media posts of BSU where an entry-level job with the information of an SG-12 salary (29,000 to 30,000 Pesos) for a college instructor is an attractive offer, Sally was one of those fresh grads who applied.

Getting a job after college graduation was a common thing to do. In this way it may pave a greater career and sustain one’s living and even survival therefore Sally applied at BSU as a COS worker.

A Waiting Game 

“The recruitment process was smooth and fast, we got the emails and notifications of what to do and were quickly deployed to teach students,” Sally narrated. 

During the employment interview, Sally’s recruiter explained that her salary would be late for a month because she is a new staff member and many papers needed to be processed. 

A month has passed and as expected, Sally has not yet been able to receive her first month’s salary pay, later on, a month-long delay became a three-month wait. According to her, a job contract was given to them to sign, once the contract had been signed it was given to the Human Resources (HR) Department for it to be verified by the President. The process was crucial to make their contracts and employment legal, the paper, however, came to them late and the process of contract signing spanned for two months. This meant that Sally was teaching at BSU for the said months without legal basis and legibility due to the absence of the duly signed contract. 

Her problem in her employment did not stop there as her salary was still yet to come after her first three months of teaching as an instructor and so did other COS workers at BSU. Sally only got her January salary in early April for the second semester of Academic Year 2023-2024. 

“That has been the culture with [working on] the Government, that even though you do not yet have an official job order to work, you will start working even though your contract is not yet official,” explained Ryan (not his real name), a former COS teaching staff in BSU.  

Sex Life and Petitions

Months have passed yet COS and JO staff like Sally are yet to receive their salary, while others are working even without the legal eligibility to work. 

A petition letter was floated for a dialogue concerning the salary delay of COS and JO workers which was signed and passed to the BSU Board of Regents (BOR) the deciding body of the university. Later on, a discussion between the responsible body and the COS and JO workers finally took place to address the said complaints.

According to Sally, the admin acknowledged the petition and requested each college a COS worker and their dean to be present in the meeting due to the said petition. 

“It was frankly insulting” were her words to describe the meeting and she assured that her colleagues and the majority would agree, “Parang sinisigawan lang kaming mga COS during that meeting” she added. The admin questioned why are they complaining and pointed out that the COS workers do not have legal rights due to the lack of employee and employer relationship. The admin pointed out furthermore that COS and JO staff do not have eligibility to work due to the absence of a duly signed contract. Lastly, the Admin pointed out to the COS workers that they were already warned about their salaries being delayed. Still, Sally as a newbie hire remembered that they only promised a 1-month delay but in truth, it went on more than a month. 

Sally also felt that the admin was trying to guilt trip and set COS workers against one another. She remembered that the admin would joke to the concerned COS workers at the meeting about having mercy on the HR and COS workers for causing them more work to be done, even mentioning that they can no longer go home early to have sex or causing them to have no sex life. 

“It’s not funny it’s just insulting since ilang months na kaming walang sweldo and eto ang sasabihin nila sa amin,” Sally expressed. 

Sally also confessed that some COS and JO staff members tried to report privately to government officials. According to her account, this resulted in the admin stating to the COS workers not to tell any officials about the salary delay due to it making the process slower. 

Stressed Out

“Halos everyday kapag pumapasok kami eh pagod kami, kasi yung iba nag pa-part-time kapag uuwi tapus papasok pa sa isang trabaho na hindi naman kami sinasahuran tas iniinsulto pa kami for airing our concerns” Sally conveyed. 

She also admitted to doing sideline work as a freelancer other than her teaching job at BSU, especially during the January to April period when she was not receiving her salary as a COS teaching staff. This was one of the ways she was able to sustain herself. 

“It’s a commission-based job kasi eh and at least doon may assurance na may makukuha akong pera,” she added. 

Due to this, there are some other days when she opts to be absent from her teaching job. Sally expounded that she directly leaves the university once her lectures are done leaving no time for consultation hours. If her class schedule is in the afternoon, she decides to not enter during the morning period just to have time to focus on her sideline. 

Ryan (not his real name), a former COS teaching staff also observed the trend of his co-workers not only looking for sidelines but also depending on loaning money to sustain their everyday living expenses and for some that have immediate need of money for their family. He also pointed out that even looking for where to loan money is already a struggle. 

“Some of our colleagues and fellow COS teachers focused instead on their side

hustles since they get direct money there instead of only waiting for the release of 

salary,” Ryan shared.

Student’s Paradigm 

Sally also observed the same behavior in her co-faculties, especially those who have families to feed. They would rather find other jobs and be absent from teaching at the university, in compromise, they would give tasks or assignments to their students at the Google Classroom instead, she recalled. 

She also noted the effects of the stress and low morale she receives due to her financial struggles on her students. 

“There were also times na nalalabas ko yung mga galit ko or yung stress na nararamdaman ko sa aking lectures which is hindi naman typical saakin. Pag may hindi nakakasagot ng mga tanong ko, mas nagagalit ako, mas naiinis ako and sometimes I would opt to end classes early or hindi ko na naaddress masyado yung mga concerns ng mga students ko,” Sally mentioned. 

Mary, not her real name, is a student of COS instructors at her college

department, she noted the changes in the behavior of her instructors in teaching their

classes.

“I felt like my instructors, who are COS workers, are not that motivated to do their

job, we even sometimes experience not having a class for a certain instructor for a

week,” Mary expressed.