More than 45,000 workers hired under the contractual scheme were regularized from their work after the Department of Labor and Employment issued Department Order (DO) 174, which bans all forms of illegal contractualization and “endo” schemes.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the government’s anti endo campaign has so far benefited 45,605 workers from July 2016 to March 2017.
“We managed to increase the number of workers whose employment were regularized following our assessments and massive information drive on contractualization. With our new department order which bans labor-only contracting and other forms of illegal contracting practices, we hope for more contractual workers to become regular this year,” he said.
The labor secretary said that 35,781 workers were voluntarily regularized by 1,322 employers while some employers resorted to termination of employment due to incapacity to regularize their employees.
“Since July, DoLE has been strictly implementing laws and regulations on job contracting and DoLE immediately provided placement and livelihood assistance to those whose employment has been terminated due to incapacity of some employers to absorb regular workers,” he said.
The DoLE deputized labor groups to inspect establishments for their compliance with the new order as well as with existing labor laws and regulations.
“I believe that more workers under illegal contracting arrangements will become regular workers as we strictly enforce the new department order,” he said.
The Labor secretary has also authorized Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod to supervise a team composed of labor compliance officers and representatives from labor and employers that will conduct inspections of more than 90,000 establishments to assure their compliance with labor standards and existing labor laws.
In a related development, the DoLE also recommended the regularization of 10,000 workers of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. after conducting special assessment on the telecommunications company in accordance with the implementation of DO 174.
Bello said the proposal was the result of the department’s Special Assessment/Visit of Establishments, which found that the workers were performing jobs that are directly connected to the company’s business but under contracting and subcontracting arrangements.
“I will order the regularization of close to 10,000 workers under contracting and subcontracting arrangements but are performing jobs that are directly related to PLDT’s business,” he explained.
Bello noted that the company’s subcontractors were also found to be non compliant with the new order.
“PLDT where found violations, mostly among its sub-contractors and majority of which are not even registered or with expired registrations,” he said.
Likewise, the DoLE chief said that Philippine Airlines and PAL Express including their contractors and subcontractors were found violating general labor standards and occupational safety and health standards.
These violations include underpayment of wages, overtime pay, service incentive leave under general labor and standards and no valid fire safety inspection certificate, no trained safety and health officers on OSHS.
Bello added that “Contractors’ workers are also performing jobs directly related to the main business of the companies.”
The SAVE is the DoLE’s mechanism to assess, validate and verify compliance with labor laws of companies and their contractors/subcontractors. With PNA