Pimentel urged to act on labor-only contracting

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon called on Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Wednesday to take a stand on the issue of labor-only contracting, saying it could not just be swept under the rug.

“I call on the Senate leadership to come out with a position on this issue because this is a policy issue. The matter of labor-only contracting is in the Labor Code and if we wish to revise this, this is a division in policy and in implementation of the law,” Drilon said at a regular Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.

‘It’s about time that Senate President Pimentel should take a close look at this and take a position. Hindi pupwedeng we’d just keep on sweeping this under the rug,” he said.

The Senate as a policy-making body, Drilon said, must come up with any policy changes on the proposed end of contract scheme or “endo.”

READ: Gov’t orders total ban on labor-only contracting

“We can’t leave it to the Labor Secretary because the Labor Secretary is limited by what is found in the law and we can’t go beyond that . We should now come out with our policy decision on how to handle this,” the Minority Leader added.

The Department of Labor and Employment has already issued an order imposing a total ban on labor-only contracting, one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s promises during the campaign.

However, the proposed measure on “endo” remained pending at the Senate. CBB