No to 2-year probationary period

Probinsyano Ako party-list representative Jose “Bonito” C. Singson Jr. has filed House Bill No. 4802, which seeks to extend the maximum prescribed period of probationary employment from six months to two years.

Probationary employment exists where the employee, upon his engagement, is made to undergo a trial period during which the employer determines his fitness to qualify for regular employment based on reasonable standards made known to the employee at the time of his engagement.

If the probationary employee continues to work for more than six months, he becomes a regular employee by operation of law.

While it is true that the Labor Code recognizes the rights of employers — such as right to 1) conduct business; 2) prescribe rules; 3) select and hire employees; 4) transfer or discharge employees; and 5) return of investment and expansion of business — which must also be respected and enforced in the interest of fair play, greater protection to employees is afforded because, according to jurisprudence, there is greater supply than demand for labor and the need for employment comes from vital, and even desperate, necessity.

Moreover, the Constitution guarantees the workers’ right to security of tenure.

The said proposal — if it will be enacted into law — will prolong the “waiting period” of the workers before they become regular employees.

Now, if the current six month-probationary period is already being cimcumvented by some employers, then there is a higher probability that the proposed two-year probationary period will also be abused by other employers. – Leonard Kristian Mesa Gelacio, Cauayan City, Isabela