President Rodrigo Duterte and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III (Photo from the Presidential Communications Operations Office)
MANILA — Labor coalition Nagkaisa is giving the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) 30 days within which to come up with new rules prohibiting contractualization as pledged by President Duterte in his meeting with labor leaders.
“President Rodrigo’s marching orders are clear: Stop contactualization and no agency hiring. Secretary Bello received these orders from the President during the labor dialogue last Monday (Feb. 27). He was instructed to work on a new draft Department Order,” said Nagkaisa spokesperson Rene Magtubo in a press conference.
“As the alter ego of the President, Secretary Bello is hard pressed to comply with the order and to abide by the demand of workers without further delay,” he added.
The group said they would call for the resignation of Bello should DOLE fail to comply with Duterte’s order.
The group noted that the latest draft of the issuance, distributed in January, still reflects the Department of Trade and Industry and employers formula of legitimizing manpower agencies and regulating their practices.
“In the light of the President’s latest instructions, Secretary Bello should junk its draft and adopt Nagkaisa’s proposed DO (department order), which seeks the prohibition of contractualization, as the new working draft,” added Magtubo.
On orders of the President, Bello was set to convene on Thursday (Mar. 2) the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) to discuss the new draft order. The TIPC, composed of workers and employers representatives serves as the clearinghouse of all labor polices, with the power to endorse proposed issuances to the DOLE Secretary. (As of this posting, no new update has been heard from the TIPC.)
“Should there be another deadlock at this level, we will expect the Secretary to decide along the line of prohibition agreed upon at the Palace,” stressed Magtubo.
The coalition is likewise hopeful that HB4444 authored by Rep. Raymond Mendoza of the TUCP Partylist, which seeks total prohibition and criminalization of contractualization offenses, would gain ground in Congress once certified by the President.
Meanwhile, on March 6, two days before International Women’s Day, women workers will march from Plaza Salamanca to the DOLE offices in Intramuros to call for an end in contractualization. SFM