EDITORIAL - Give JOs their dignity back this Christmas

If government is supposed to be of the people, for the people and by the people, then how come it is very unfair, and at times condescending, in treating some of the very people who help make government itself tick. Take the case, for example, of how government treats its job order employees. To put it very bluntly, the government treats job order employees like pieces of shit.

No less than the Commission on Audit sees job order employees, or JOs, as having no employer-employee relationship with government, and are therefore not entitled to any bonuses and incentives available to other government employees. To the COA, all that the JOs are entitled to are their salaries. Yet for all the COA'S stiffness about regulations, it is not even aware that government itself is giving JOs less than the minimum wage.

It has to be admitted that JOs are mostly hired as political accommodations. But everything from that point is relative and it is up to the COA, or whatever agency to determine if JOs are really performing specific and important duties or are just receiving salaries without working for it. A vast majority of JOs do perform tasks that are essential in running government.

Many JOs are in the health, sanitation, environmental, security and general services -- jobs that the government cannot do without. Let the COA imagine what a mess government service would be if there were no JOs doing these jobs. And yet all that the COA sees is the strict technicality of the law that says JOs have no employer-employee relationship. What a great betrayal by government for it to treat JOs with no dignity and respect for their persons and rights as citizens.

Is the COA even aware that many JOs working in the health services are actually licensed professionals? These registered nurses and midwives report for work everyday doing health services for the government, at salaries that are not only below the minimum wage but are often delayed by up to a month. Shame on the COA for feasting on government bonuses like the rest of all government workers while depriving JOs the same and making them feel like outcasts this Christmas.

Is the COA aware that JOs in the health services formed the backbone of the recent nationwide anti-measles campaign of the Department of Health? Does the COA realize that without these JOs in the health services, that particular nationwide anti-measles campaign of the DOH would have collapsed under the weight of its own hubris? Yet, it is the DOH that claims credit for the huge success of the campaign while the JOs get practically nothing.

It is time government recognizes each and every cog and wheel that makes its hum and turn. It is time government recognizes the worth of each person working for it and not get confused by titles and labels. It is time government restores dignity and self-respect to honest work. If government, particularly the COA, has to turn a blind eye to all the stealing and corruption in the system, the least it can do is balance the equation. Give JOs doing honest work the dignity they deserve.