ONE of the concerns that is always expressed about doing business in the Philippines, which negatively affects our competitive edge, is that it is difficult to fire a regular employee.

The process is tedious and time consuming for the employer. When an employee is finally terminated, it is likely that the person will file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC). The NLRC tends to give the benefit of the doubt to the employee and this requires more time and expenditure from the employer.

Although no one would say that hiring contract employees is better for the business, the employee, or the country, it is a practical alternative to the current situation. Even an employee who is habitually absent must be given a lengthy due process to be replaced. According the US Department of Labor, about 6 percent of all employees are absent due to unscheduled leaves.

The ones who abuse the system, knowing that they probably won’t be fired, make it harder on the good workers.

But the worst cases of employees abusing the system with their absenteeism are found in the Philippine House of Representatives.

A few days ago, civil-society leaders from 14 Mindanao-based groups wrote a letter to the Office of the Ombudsman to look into the “chronic absenteeism” in the House of Representatives that has hampered its work on important bills.

While the President seems to enjoy calling the people of the Philippines the “bosses” of elected officials, that idea is a bad joke. In the real world outside of government, the boss has the right and obligation to fire bad employees at any time. The people—the bosses—of the Philippines cannot do this.

Rep. Manny Pacquiao of Sarangani showed up for “work” a total of four days in 2014, although he was marked “present” for seven. Rep. Julio Ledesma IV of Negros Occidental also managed to find time in his busy schedule to come to work for seven days in 2014. But they are not the only ones who got paid for being absent. It is reported that Rep. Rolando Andaya of Camarines Sur was present for a total of 10 days, Rep. Hernan Biron Jr. of Iloilo for 11, and Rep. Lucy Gomez of Leyte showed up for 15 House sessions.

Pacquiao says that he was absent due to spending 25 days on “constituency work.” While we will give the Congressman the benefit of the doubt—as perhaps required by Philippine Labor law—we question this constituency work.

Representatives are not elected to cut the ribbon at the fast-food restaurant opening in their district. They are not elected to go on taxpayer funded “fact-finding missions” to Boracay.

And the people are helpless to fire these bad employees. Calls for the representatives to lose their salary for missed days is ridiculous. Which congressman/woman takes the job for just the salary like a real employee in the real business world?

These absentee representatives are a disgrace to the country, the government and to the people they are supposedly representing.