Dole misinformed Duterte on promise of regularization, labor group claims

President Rodrigo Duterte was misinformed by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regarding the regularization of almost 300,000 workers, according to the Associated Labor Unions – Trade Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).

“The President was misinformed by the Dole about the regularization of 300,000 workers,” Alan Tanjusay, ALU-TUCP spokesperon said in a statement on Monday. “That is a a grand deception by the Dole, they are not telling the entire truth.”

According to Tanjusay, most contractual workers are being regularized through third-party human resource companies, not with the companies that use their services.

“Most of these are being regularized under their manpower agencies or labor contractors. They are not being regularized with the principal employer or principal business owner,” he said.

Under this setup, the labor leader said workers would still have no job security.

“This means these workers have no security of tenure with the company they are working for, they are not paid the standard daily minimum wage, their mandatory social protection insurance are not remitted by employers, and their right to bargain collectively with the principal employer is completely illusory,” Tanjusay said.

On the other hand, the ALU-TUCP welcomed the President’s confession that he had not yet fulfilled his campaign promise of ending contractualization, saying it would be willing to work with the Duterte administration.

“Now that he has ‘added his voice’ to the clamor for Congress to immediately pass the Security of Tenure Bill, we await his certification of the bill as an urgent administration measure,” Tanjusay said. “With this development, the ALU -TUCP is looking forward to constructively engage President Duterte and work with him to ensure that he fulfill his promise to end contractualization.” /atm