‘Endo’ bill will stop abuses, says Villanueva

The proposed Senate bill on labor contracting is intended to protect against abusive practices of employers and does not ban all kinds of contracting, according to Sen. Joel Villanueva, the measure’s main proponent.

Villanueva, who chairs the Senate’s labor committee, defended the bill from criticism from the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) which said it had provisions that were “problematic and unconstitutional” and would abolish all forms of contracting, to the detriment of the business environment.

Sufficient capital

Ecop cites one of the provisions that prohibits labor-only contracting, in which the job contractor merely recruits or places workers to a contractee regardless of whether he or she has sufficient capital or investment, or the workers supplied are under the control and supervision of the contractee.

If this is present, the workers would be deemed regular employees of the contractee.

Villanueva said the bill banned labor-only contracting. —LEILA B. SALAVERRIA