Dole bars contractors from job fairs

ENDING ‘ENDO’ Labor leaders from Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino call on the government to make good on its promise to stop labor contractualization, also known as “endo” (end of contract), during the administration of President Duterte. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna—State-sponsored job fairs in Southern Tagalog are now off limits to labor contractors and subcontractors.

The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) has temporarily excluded them from events held to address employment issues as a way of abolishing the practice of “endo” (end of contract) by 2017.

Contractors are commonly known as manpower agencies, hiring workers for deployment to the “principal” or companies, usually in the food or manufacturing businesses. Endo, on the other hand, refers to rehiring workers for the same job after a short period, usually five to six months, denying them security of tenure, and health and social security benefits.

Ma. Zenaida Angara-Campita, labor director in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces), issued a memorandum on Aug. 11 to ban labor contracting firms from joining job fairs organized by the Dole and the local governments’ Public Employment Service Offices (Peso).

The ban supports a department order in July that also suspended the registration of “new applicants as contractors or subcontractors.”

Temporary prohibition

At least 121 labor contractors and subcontractors are registered with the Dole in Calabarzon as of July this year. In 2015, the number reached 255.

In a telephone interview, Campita said the prohibition was only temporary as her office was still reviewing labor policies, especially an order that prohibits “labor-only” contracting.

Under the scheme, the contractor “merely recruits and supplies” workers to the principal and does not have control over the nature of work of the employee.

This practice is prohibited when the contractor also does not have substantial capital and workers are performing jobs “directly related to the main business of the principal (company),” the Dole said.

Jane Corcuera of the Laguna Peso, an office under the provincial government, said contractors would no longer be invited to join the series of job fairs scheduled this week. She said she used to invite several agencies and direct employers in job fairs that drew hundreds of jobseekers.

Policy not a problem

Campita said the policy should not be a problem for employers, especially those requiring more workers.

“If your [company] needs the manpower, all the more reason to regularize your employees,” she said. “You should not deceive your employees; instead afford them benefits and their rights to association.”

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has begun meeting with business and employers’ groups to solicit their support for President Duterte’s program to eliminate contractualization and illegal labor practices in the country.