Behind the glitz and glamour of corporate media is a disturbing labor practice that affects thousands of media workers: contractualization.

Like many workplaces, factories and even government offices across the country, contractualization has taken over as the mode of employment of choice by most employers. The reasons are obvious: employers are able to maximize profits and maintain cheap labor, without the hassle of recognizing workers’ right to living wages, tenure, benefits and form unions.

In front of GMA Network’s sprawling complex in the corner of Timog Avenue and EDSA on Friday, June 5, its media workers—patronizingly called “talents” by the network management—gathered, did a roving picket, lit candles, and gave speeches. They railed against the network’s contractualization practice and condemned the alleged harassment of those who filed the labor case against the management.

Christian Cabaluna, president of Talents’ Association of GMA (TAG), said they have been harassed and threatened by the network bosses for insisting that GMA recognize their right to enjoy the benefits of regular employees.

Depriving them of rights

Cabaluna and other TAG members have complained of difficulties in securing their pay.

“Our [mode of] pay shifted to the cheque system, and now they want us to issue to them an acknowledgment receipt (AR),” a flabbergasted Cabaluna said. He has worked for nine years in “Imbestigador,” one of the station’s top news programs. Before May 25, they got their pay through ATM, which was easier for them given the fieldwork they did for the program.

The shift to making them get the cheques and having them issue an AR proved to be a huge hassle for them. “Let’s say we were assigned to go to Makati. What they would they like us to do is to run back to [the station], issue the AR just for us to get the cheque, and run to the bank, queue up, and encash it,” lamented Cabaluna.

The controversy about the AR compelled many GMA talents to unite to form TAG early last year, when the Bureau of Internal Revenue released a memorandum requiring businesses and even service providers to issue receipts.

“That’s when we discovered that we were really not employees. GMA said to us, ‘you are service providers.’ So we were not different from those who [engage in] vehicles for hire, or those who sell products. Our products were our talent: We wrote, we shot (video footages), we edited. Those were the things they say we were paid for,” he added.

The utter lack of job security, along with lack of benefits accorded to regular employees, pushed them to take legal avenues to assert their rights.

Calabuna said he himself opted not to get his latest pay check. “Back then, I’m sure I get my pay every pay date. But now I opt not to. First, the receipts we would issue could be used against us, and second, it we cannot succumb to this harassment,” he added.

He explained that if they succumb to the management’s demand, they would inadvertently “admit” they are, in fact, mere contractuals or service providers.

Because of what they deemed as unreasonable demands by GMA management, in the past few days TAG launched a series of activities to dramatize their position and register their protest. They did candlelighting, sought support from various groups, and, on Friday, did a roving picket.

On Wednesday, June 3, TAG members were preparing for a Catholic mass celebration and a candlelighting when one of them received a message from their boss, asking them to report back to work.

TAG sees the demand for some of their members to report to work in the middle of their “work stoppage” as a form of harassment.

Philip Cinco, segment producer of “Imbestigador,” said that their work stoppage was their answer to the unreasonable demands by the company such as asking them to issue ARs. “Right now, there are (some of us) who opted not to get their pay. (But) most have to, because they are breadwinner of their families,” said Cinco.

“You can look at (the company) website and see the latest job openings of the company,” Cabaluna said. Because of their assertion to fight for their rights, 52 of TAG’s members were terminated last year, apart from more than 200 regulars this year.

In solidarity

Cabaluna added that when they joined the network, they did not know much about the problem of contractualization. All they knew was that after college graduation, they wanted to work for a company like the GMA Network where they can apply their training in TV production or journalism.

Indeed, college teaches you a lot of things, he said, but does not necessarily teach you the harsh realities of life, like the practice of contractualization where the labor of loyal employees are utterly exploited in exchange for meager salary and supposed prestige.

In fighting against the practice of contractualization in a media network like GMA, Cabaluna and the other TAG members began to realize that they were not alone in the fight. During Friday’s roving picket around the network compound, labor groups joined them in solidarity. Many TAG members said that they now fight not just for the regularization of GMA “talents”, but for all contractual workers, from the factory workers like that of Kentex Manufacturing (who fell victim to government neglect and management’s defiance of safety standards) to that of Tanduay Distillery (who valiantly wage a labor strike as of this writing).

“We are telling this story on behalf of the 1.1 million Filipinos who are non-regular workers. We are telling this story on behalf of the 49,000 teachers who have endured years of low wages and unjust working conditions, for the 130,000 health workers who have left their profession because of contractualization, and for those who remain in the health sector in the name of public service; we are telling this story for the construction workers, for the factory workers, and the rest who deserve decent employment,” TAG said in a statement.

Beyond the supposed glitz and glamour of working for a media network, these media workers, it seems, see the justness of resisting contractualization, and fighting for their rights and that of fellow working people.

With reports from Judielyn Agua