THE big labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa on Thursday insisted that it would not accept the Department of Labor and Employment’s Dept. Order 30 that would set new policy on contractualization scheme.
It said this was opposite to President Rodrigo Duterte’s commitment to the labor sector to ban contractualization in the country.
“We are urging President Duterre to disapprove the current [order] and ask DoLE to make the [order] aligned with his promise to the Filipino people to end contractualization,” TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said.
“The draft department order will not lead to the ultimate end but rather to the further strengthening of the legal standing of contractualization in the country,” he said.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the department would release Dept. Order 30 on Dec. 28, 2016, which would slowly wipe out the “endo” and illegal contractualization.
But the TUCP maintained the new Dept. Order would still allow contractualization scheme being practiced by big companies, by employing the services of manpower agencies.
“Why can’t big companies directly hire workers and still get the service of manpower agencies? It’s because they can easily remove the worker and point the blame to the manpower agency,” the TUCP said.
However, the labor chief said the government would conduct another round of discussion with labor groups and other stakeholders to modify or amend the draft Dept. Order.
He said the department was on track with the objective of eliminating “endo” and other forms of illegal contracting arrangements.
“In fact, a total of 32,437 workers are now enjoying job security after their employers and contractors converted their employment into regular status,” he said.
Of this figure, 28,772 workers were regularized after the conduct of 186 consultations and meetings with 9,100 establishments.
About 3,665 workers were regularized after the DOLE Regional Offices inspected 17,147 establishments and contractors.
Meanwhile, some companies that committed to regularize their workers are those in the priority industries.
“Some companies volunteered to regularize their workers, seven manpower agencies in Luzon became the first recipients of the cease-and-desist orders from the labor department,” he said.
Bello said some 1,123 displaced workers in the mining industry were already provided with P3,200,550 emergency employment by the department under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers.
“This is just temporary employment for displaced workers who were affected by our campaign against “endo.” We will also be providing them with livelihood or skills training,” Bello added.