THE Duterte administration will propose to labor groups on Monday what they called a “win-win situation” to stop labor contractualization as suggested by trade and labor officials, business leaders and lawmakers.
“This Monday, we will be talking to labor groups and we will be laying on the table a proposal coming from the management. Whatever their position, we will raise them as soon as employers and workers meet soon,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a radio interview over dzRB.
“Secretary Ramon Lopez of [the Department of Trade and Industry] and I met with management groups. They have a ‘win-win’ proposal,” Bello said.
Lopez had earlier said that in the “win-win” setup, workers will be hired by service providers and agencies as regulars, receiving full benefits such as leave credits, 13th month pay as well as retirement, social security and health insurance plans, among others.
Companies, meanwhile, will have the flexibility to either directly hire workers as regular employees or outsource them through service providers in view of seasonal job functions, he said.
“What is critical now is the compliance of service providers in giving full benefits to the workers,” Lopez said.
“Workers can be easily redeployed to other clients, and that’s why we deemed it okay to have this permanent structure between a service provider and its employees. Now in the remote possibility that these workers could no longer be redeployed, they should be entitled to separation pay.”
Data from the Department of Labor and Employment show there are 5,150 registered contractors and subcontractors deploying more than 416,000 workers to not less than 26,000 principals.
Labor group Partido Manggagawa, however, expressed their objection to DOLE-DTI’s proposed labor relations structure involving workers, service providers, and companies.
Lopez, however, said that the non-aaceptance by employers and labor groups of the DTI’s “win-win structure” to address the end-of-contract or “endo” scheme may lead to job loss.
“Not accepting the ‘win-win’ proposal may lead to some people losing jobs,” Lopez told GMA News Online.
“Forcing the regularization of employees will simply lead to companies regularizing fewer employees, as they would lose the flexibility of hiring less during off-peak seasons and there are functions that they would rather outsource so they could focus on branding and growing the business,” Lopez noted.
“Principal companies should have the option to hire regulars or hire through service providers. What’s important is that workers get full benefits and legal compensation whether from principal company or as employee of a service provider,” he added.
Bello said that the proposal is “good” because workers will be on a regular and permanent—not co-terminus with the contract with principal company—and retirment benefits are mandatory.
“Their proposal, except for some minor concerns, is good. Everybody will be considered an employee but this time they are not employees of capitalists but the service provider agencies,” he added.