Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has ordered all regional directors to report incidents of contractualization and “endo” or end of contract across the country in a bid to end these unfair practices.
“Our regional directors are really given the marching orders. First is for them to report to us incidents of endo and contractualization, which is common knowledge,” Bello said.
“And from there, we would have to enforce strict compliance by our directors in implementing these provisions of our laws on endo and contractualization,” he added.
Bello said he is looking at reducing these incidents by 50 percent in the first 100 days of the Duterte administration.
“If our labor directors will just do their job, we can reduce these practices by at least 50 percent. That is the challenge I am giving to our department officials,” he said.
“It is very clear that there is a rampant violation of our labor laws, including Department Order No. 18, which strengthens the rights of contractual employees. We would require our regional officers to be very vigilant against the practice of endo and contractualization,” the labor chief added.
Bello also instructed the Bureau of Working Conditions to prepare profiles of contractors and subcontractors based on results or findings from Labor Laws Compliance Officers (LLCOs).
In an earlier interview, he admitted that many employers, particularly mall operators, have found a way to circumvent the country’s labor laws.
“Mall operators usually circumvent the contractualization law. After five months, they would replace you so there won’t be any security of tenure. It’s not right,” Bello said.
Statistics from the labor department showed the country has almost 35 million contractual workers out of 67.1 million workers as of 2016.
