A labor group known to take conservative positions on issues affecting workers has joined protests against a new order that the labor department described as its answer to calls for President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill a promise to end “endo” (end of contract).
Endo is street slang for the practice by many companies of hiring contractual workers and firing them at the end of their contracts to prevent them from becoming regular employees.
A leader of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) said the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) order, issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, was a “loss-loss situation for workers.”
ALU-TUCP, known for prioritizing negotiations over strikes in labor conflicts, joined militant labor groups in protesting the new Dole order.
Alan Tanjusay, ALU-TUCP spokesperson, said the Dole order ran counter to Mr. Duterte’s promise to end short-term and agency-based hiring of workers.
“We urge him to reject it,” Tanjusay said in a statement.
“It is a loss-loss situation for workers and a win-win formula in favor of employers, manpower services, cooperatives,” the ALU-TUCP spokesperson said.
“The order signed by Bello on March 16 also contradicts the desire of [Mr.] Duterte to end contractualization and for the government to do away with agency hiring,” he said.
Dole Department Order No. 174 bans labor-only contracting. Its issuance came after months of deliberations and meetings with employers and workers’ groups.
Under the order, contractual arrangements are to be regulated and endo would be prohibited.
Ending endo has been one of Mr. Duterte’s most highly anticipated decisions and had been one of the central themes of his campaign for the presidency.
In previous meetings with labor groups and Dole officials, Mr. Duterte had reiterated that he was bent on fulfilling his promise to end endo.
Tanjusay echoed protests made by militant workers’ groups that described the Dole order as a disappointment that would just perpetuate endo.
He said while the order banned labor-only contracting, it failed to plug loopholes that would allow employers to seek the cheapest job contracts that would burden workers with low, illegal wages.