As another annual JGSOM Student Enterprise Center (JSEC) Challenge approaches, questions continue to be raised about the practices within this fabric of Atenean society. On numerous occasions, current John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM) Dean Luis Dumlao, PhD has been questioned about the contract situation surrounding JSEC employees. In particular, during the Magtanong sa VP at Mga Dekano forum on August 24, a freshman asked about the contractualization of JSEC workers. In response, Dumlao affirmed that JSEC employees are not employed by the Ateneo, but by the individual food stall owners.
With the passing of Executive Order 51 and mounting pressure from labor groups such as Kilusang Mayo Uno and the NAGKAISA labor union, President Rodrigo Duterte classified the passage of the proposed anti-“endo” Senate Bill 1826 as urgent. As such, the situation surrounding the future of contractualization in JSEC has been getting some attention.
Under the hood
All food booths that participate in JSEC are student-run, and due to the new prerogative from JGSOM, students are disallowed from re-running as stall owners starting from this school year. This new prerogative is to give more students the chance of running a JSEC stall, which allows for most stalls to run only for a single, solitary year.
Unless the JSEC stall plans to branch outside of the JSEC bubble, the employees hired by the food booths are employed under one-year, temporary contracts. In a sample contract received by The GUIDON from a former JSEC stall owner, the employees are signed to all-in-one contracts. Employees are normally paid between a range of Php 500 to Php 600 daily. Employees are provided with the standard benefits, which include the Social Security System (SSS), PhilHealth, 13th-month pay, and Pag-IBIG fund. Students who fail to pay the benefits of their employees are given hold orders until the matter is settled.
Another benefit found within the contract is food allowance. From Monday to Friday, employees are allowed to eat two solo meals, which consists of viand and rice. On Saturdays, they are eligible for a single meal. In the case of some JSEC stalls, the employees are given a choice between the solo meals or an “allowance” along with unlimited rice.
Interestingly, the sample contract states that JSEC employees are not allowed to have their meal break within the time period of 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. It can be assumed that this is because majority of JSEC customers are served during this time period. In comparison to regular employees, JSEC employees do not have a government-required 60-minute lunch break. This is due to their status as “managerial employees” which is defined in the Philippine Labor Code as “those whose primary duty consists of the management of the establishment in which they are employed or of a department or subdivision thereof, and to other officers or members of the managerial staff.”
Because of their status as “managerial employees,” they are not held to the same standard of eight maximum hours of work per day. As such, JSEC employees work from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM from Mondays to Fridays, and from 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM on Saturdays.
In the case of a sudden cancellation of classes, employees are paid under a different set of rules. If the operation of the stall ends between the times of 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, employees are paid Php 50 an hour until the end of operations. If classes end between 10:00 AM and 1:59 PM, employees are paid half-day wages. If operations end any later than that, the employees are paid for a whole day’s work.
Despite Book III, Chapter 3, Article 94 of the Philippine Labor Code stating that retail and service establishments employing less than ten workers are exempt from paying holiday wage, JSEC stall owners pay their employees their wage during the regular holidays. Those who break these laws may be sued by the employees.
However, because JSEC employees only have legally binding contracts for one year, a multitude of benefits prescribed in the Philippine Labor Code are deducted from them. One of the more vital benefits taken away from the JSEC Employees is the right to a maternity leave. It states in Book III, Title 3, Chapter 1, Article 133, that employees shall only be granted maternity leave if they have an aggregated service of six months out of the last 12 months of employment. The employer is also required to pay for the complete wages of the woman for the two weeks prior to the delivery, and four weeks after the delivery or an abortion.
The stall owner employs a three warning policy for their employees. If the employee receives three warnings, the stall owner is eligible to remove the employee from his or her position without separation pay. Warnings may arise from the tardiness of the employee, theft, not fulfilling their responsibilities, and improper uniform. When employees are removed without breaking the rules, they are entitled to a day’s wage and half a month’s worth of salary.
Excess mileage
Despite some employees working at JSEC for up to 11 years, these employees are yet to be regularized by the school. In the case of Dina*, a longtime member of the JSEC employment system, she raised a concern with regard to her chances of employment outside. “Medyo matanda na kami, nahihirapan na kami mag-apply sa labas dahil overage na po kami.”
(We are already old, and we have a hard time applying outside [Ateneo] because we are overaged.)
Her one wish is to have JSEC employ a system that prioritizes employees that have worked in JSEC before to prevent the sudden displacement of their jobs.
The JSEC employee resume system was newly implemented this year. This idea came about from the thesis of development studies class of 2018 graduates Luis Enriquez, Wynona Alzate, Mel Despojo, Zoe Jimenez, Elisa Manuel, and Ysa Reyes for their DS 135.19: Creating Shared Value class.
The JSEC employee resume system collected employee data and afterwards, the resulting resumes were sent to the current JSEC stall owners. Found within the JSEC resume are the following information: The employee’s age, the amount of years of experience at JSEC, their contact details, their educational attainment, their previous work experience (with different categories for within and outside of the Ateneo), the employee’s skills (split into transferable skills, technical skills, personal skills), and the assessment section, which contains three more categories (self-assessment, peer evaluation , and comments from their fellow workers).
Enriquez, in conjunction with JSEC Coordinator Alyson Yap, obtained this information last April 18 at an employee gathering. Some employees were excluded from the resume list due to complications with their previous bosses, or they were unable to attend the meeting.
The resume system has impacted the decision-making of JSEC stall owners. Selena Yu, stall owner of Terri-Tori, admits that “the resume file [was] useful in finding employees for their stall.” However, Yu admits that they did not purely rely on the resume system, and that they inquired from past stall owners how a certain employee was, and conducted interviews on their own.
Despite the resume system having an impact on retaining previous employees of JSEC, Yap admits that their job security will always be under fire.
“The owner has the prerogative to hire their own employees. On one extreme end, possibly, lahat ng nasa JSEC ngayon, di maha-hire next year. Let’s say what if lahat ng JSEC stall owners may sariling source of employees. So it’s very possible that they will not be able to have a job next year. ‘Yun talaga nature ng JSEC,” he says.
(On one extreme end, possibly, everyone [working] in JSEC now won’t be hired next year. Let’s say what if all the JSEC stall owners have their own source of employees. So it’s very possible that they will not have a job next year. That’s really the nature of JSEC.)
Asked if JSEC should follow the increasing national trend of regularization, Yap responded, “Honestly, no. Let’s put it simply, being a JSEC stall owner is only for a maximum of one year [or] ten months. In the end, even if I’m for the end of endo [contractualization], but to be very honest, I don’t know how we could not do endo [contractualization] here. When in the first place, businesses end after one year of operating.”
“It’s really the nature of JSEC,” he reaffirmed.
Regularization woes
When it comes to job security, Yap mentions the impossibility of regularization. “Given that the business entity can only exist for one year, maximum, then how can someone be regularized? [Our assumption here is that] regularized means some form of job security. How can a JSEC employee have job security when in fact, the business does not have a business tenure; [it’s not going to continue.]”
However, if the JSEC stall continues business outside of Ateneo, the situation changes. “That is where employees should get job security. Because there, the business would be an ongoing concern. It will not stop abruptly next year. And if the business gets bankrupt, then the employee would receive benefits because he is a regular in that business. But the assumption there is that the business is continuous,” Yap said in a mix of English and Filipino.
What lies ahead?
Economics professor Leonardo A. Lanzona, PhD believes that the burden of employee wages must shift from the student owners to the student body or the University. He explains that because these employees are technically newly employed every year by new contractors, “by law, they are not supposed to give them initial benefits.” He adds that the student body or the administration should create a fund to benefit the employees as they “benefit from having the same group of people working for them.”
He compares the situation of JSEC employees to the problem of minimum wage in firms. “In minimum wages, [you’re] shifting the burden of giving people decent wages to the firms. But the firms are just paying for whatever additional benefits and productivity that these workers have, and it may be lower than what they should be receiving. It might be lower than the wages that they need to have to live decently. The idea is that we should shift the burden onto society, and what society should do is to provide a social protection [to the workers].”
He suggests that the student body create an unconditional cash transfer program, wherein the receivers of the cash transfer do not need to fit a certain criterion.“[It’s] so that the employees can live decently. Even after their former student owners have left, they will be able to live decently, at least their children will be able to go to school.”
When asked if Executive Order 55 will change the issue of contractualization in the Philippines, Lanzona says “Generally, I’m not in favor of that.” He believes that there should be “individual contracts for individual firms.” He adds that “the solution to the problem is not to set up a regulation, but […] to come up with an efficient contract. Something that would benefit not only the owner, but also the worker.”
As the issue of regularization rages on in courtrooms around the country, one would hope that a solution benefitting all members of the JSEC system is found soon.
Editor’s note: The former JSEC stall owner contacted is currently an Inquiry staffer for The GUIDON.
