PAGADIAN CITY—The days of “endo” (or “end of contract,” a labor slang for contractualization) in Zamboanga Peninsula are numbered, the Department of Labor and Employment said.
The department has intensified its campaign against companies hiring workers through short-term contracts to avoid paying financial benefits to full-time employees, a labor official said.
DoLE Region 9 information officer Gay Iris Tangcalagan said the local labor and employment office extended its full support to President Rodrigo Duterte’s battle against “endo,” which he wanted eradicated by 2017.
Tangcalagan said DoLE labor law compliance officers have been directed to inspect different companies in Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and their component cities of Zamboanga, Dipolog, Dapitan and Pagadian.
The law compliance officers, Tangcalagan said, were authorized to see if workers get their appropriate benefits, if “endo” is not being practiced and the minimum wage is paid.
Tangcalagan told the media that case violations were recorded—with Zamboanga City, the region’s commercial center, recording the highest incidence—and the DoLE regional office issued an order of compliance to the concerned establishments.
“If the companies do not comply with the order, garnishment will follow and, lastly, the Labor department will push the case to the National Labor Relation Commission for appropriate action,” Tangcalagan quoted DoLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III as saying.
