Worsening work contractualization scored

The Nagkaisa coalition criticized the government for the worsening situation of contractual workers despite the pledge of President Duterte to end the practice within his term. The group said a multinational company recently fired regular employees only to outsource the jobs to an independent contractor. The group said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III also recently reversed two findings by the department’s regional offices of illegal labor-only contracting that would have resulted in the regularization of thousands of workers. Lawyer Sonny Matula, chair of Nagkaisa and president of the Federation of Free Workers, said that while President Duterte had already broken his campaign promise five years ago to end labor contractualization within six months, the Department of Labor and Employment appeared to walk back the promise further. —DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN