Civil service

2022 - 8 - 26

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Image courtesy of "pna.gov.ph"

Solon seeks civil service eligibility for casual gov't workers (pna.gov.ph)

MANILA – A lawmaker on Thursday pushed for the passage of a measure seeking to grant automatic civil service eligibility to long-time casual state workers ...

“Considering the services they extend in all government offices vis-a-vis the insufficient benefits and privileges accorded the casual and contractual employees, the government should grant these dedicated employees who have rendered efficient service in the bureaucracy an opportunity to obtain their civil service eligibility,” she said. In filing House of Representatives Bill 1387, Bagong Henerasyon Party-list Rep. The bill covers government employees holding casual or contractual positions in the first and second levels and who have rendered at least five consecutive years of government service.

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Image courtesy of "The Washington Post"

If Trump wins again, he wants to be able to fire civil servants (The Washington Post)

Former president Donald Trump's aides want to overhaul the federal civil service, should Trump have a second term in the Oval Office, according to reporting ...

[4,000](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-10-05/the-u-s-doesn-t-need-so-many-political-appointees-kue15hi7) political appointees in the federal bureaucracy. [confined](https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414020912262) to certain historical eras. [Scholars](https://doi.org/10.2307/2657374) have linked rational-legal institutions to higher economic growth in developing countries as well. The association [remains](https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316822869) even after weighing other factors that might affect corruption, such as a country’s wealth and level of democracy. Writing here at TMC last year, Walter Shaub [argued](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/11/civil-servants-are-last-defense-against-lawless-president-its-no-wonder-trump-didnt-trust-them/?itid=lk_inline_manual_27) that the federal civil service — more than Congress or executive branch investigators — helped prevent undemocratic actions when Trump behaved lawlessly. [Ryan Saylor](https://ryanrsaylor.com/) is an associate professor of political science at the University of Tulsa, researching how creditors pressed for meritocratic bureaucracies in Europe historically, and author of “ [State Building in Boom Times: Commodities and Coalitions in Latin America and Africa](http://global.oup.com/academic/product/state-building-in-boom-times-9780199364954?cc=us&lang=en&tab=overview)” (Oxford University Press, 2014). [rational-legal](https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520280021/economy-and-society)” bureaucracies. Over time, people may come to regard government not as something that provides public goods but that distributes [personal favors](https://doi.org/10.5129/001041516818254437) — shifting elections from debates over government policies to competitions over who will distribute and receive patronage. [13597](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/26/2020-23780/creating-schedule-f-in-the-excepted-service), which President Biden [rescinded](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-trump-federal-employees/2021/01/22/41078848-5cca-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) in January 2021. Democrats [railed against](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress-trump-federal-civil-service/2020/12/21/389812f6-43d7-11eb-975c-d17b8815a66d_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) Schedule F when it was introduced and [oppose](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/26/trump-schedule-f-civil-service/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) its revival, arguing that civil servants deserve legal buffers from politicians. The United States moved in this direction with the [Pendleton Act](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/pendleton-act#:~:text=The%20Pendleton%20Act%20provided%20that,were%20covered%20by%20the%20law.) in 1883, which ordered that government employees be hired based on competitive exams and made it unlawful to fire or demote them for political reasons. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) introduced a [bill](https://roy.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/roy.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Roy%20Public%20Service%20Reform%20Act%20Text%20-%20FINAL.pdf) to fulfill Trump’s aim, making civil servants “at will” employees, with the goal of getting the government to operate more like a private business.

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Image courtesy of "INQUIRER.net"

Solon files bill to give casual gov't workers service eligibility after 5 ... (INQUIRER.net)

MANILA, Philippines — Casual or contractual government employees who have been in service continuously for at least five years may soon get civil service ...

This is not the first time that the government was urged to regularize its workers. France Castro renewed calls for the regularization of casual and contractual employees, claiming that around 500,000 of the 2.3 million workers in government have not been regularized yet. Data from 2010 which she cited apparently shows that out of the government’s 1.4 million employees, around 120,000 are said to be under a contractual status. Granting regular status will serve as an incentive towards more productive work, investing in one’s job, and taking on a longer-term view at one’s career advancement,” she said. “Subject to the provisions of the Constitution and applicable civil service laws, rules and regulations, all incumbent government employees, as of the approval of this Act, who are holding casual or contractual positions in the first and second levels and who have rendered continuous service for the last five (5) years shall be granted civil service eligibility by the Civil Service Commission,” the bill said. “As many as 120,000 state workers are said to be contractual employees, and in some agencies such as Department of Transportation, as much as 40% — almost half of the Department’s 6, 948 personnel — remain to be temporary, contractual or ‘job order’ workers,” she said in the bill’s explanatory note.

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Image courtesy of "Daily Express"

Civil service chiefs' staggering pensions REVEALED: 40 mandarins ... (Daily Express)

ALMOST 40 Whitehall mandarins enjoy taxpayer-funded pension pots worth more than £1 million, the Daily Express can reveal.

This was equivalent to the annual state pension for around 13,464 pensioners. A further five mandarins were entitled to annual pensions of between £80,000 and £95,000 per year. The campaign group is calling on the new government to crack down on overgenerous pension arrangements in the public sector.

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