The Senate Committee on Labor is holding a hearing on ‘end of contract system’ (endo) for laborers practised by government and private companies.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reports, factories, hotels, restaurants as well as wholesale and retail firms are among the top industries hiring contractual employees.
Labor Undersecretary Joji Aragon says, there are currently 5,150 registered contractors employing 416,000 contractual workers.
The ratio is about 81 workers per contractor.
DOLE claims, in-house agencies providing contractual employees are not allowed.
It adds, national and local governments also engage the services of quite a high number of contractual employees.
Senate Labor Committee Chairman Joel Villanueva says, companies must be stopped from just transferring employees to other branches to avoid being forced to place the staff on regular status.
Senator Franklin Drilon says, if employees are performing core functions or principal activities for a company, then they must be hired as regular workers.
Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) reports, many workers are courageous enough to file cases even at the risk of losing their jobs.
