Bello vows to repeal DOLE order legalizing ‘endo’

Silvestre Bello. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/Nestor Corrales

Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III on Wednesday said the department will repeal a department order which he said legalized the practice of end of contract (“endo”).

“Yung Department Order 18-A, pinapa-review ko… I-re-repeal natin ‘yan… ASAP… Inabutan ko lang ‘yan eh. Dapat naman siguro within this year (I’m having Department Order 18-A reviewed… We’ll repeal it ASAP… This just caught up to me in my term. It should be repealed this year),” Bello said in an ambush interview at the sidelines of the appropriations committee hearing the proposed Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) P13.293 billion budget for 2017.

During the hearing, Bello was asked by 1-Sagip Rep. Rodante Marcoleta if the department plans to scrap Department Order 18-A series of 2011 that critics said legalized the contractualization of labor.

Bello said the department order is under review for making the illegal practice of hiring workers every six months a practice in the labor industry.

“Yung DO 18-A na ‘yan, inabutan ko na po ‘yan. Sabi ko nga, pag-aralan natin ‘yan dahil ‘yan ang sanhi ng root of this endo, or contractualization issue. Kaya huwag po kayo mag-alala, mga congressman, ‘yung pag-aaral ko po dito sa DO 18-A, papabilisan ko po,” Bello told the lawmakers.

(We will study DO 18-A because that is the root cause of this endo, or contractualization issue. So don’t worry, congressmen, we will expedite studying DO 18-A.)

Bello also said some business groups, such the Employers Confederation Conference of the Philippines and the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, have requested at least a month to be enlightened about the definition of endo or contractualizaton.

“Nalilito ang mga businessmen eh. Sabi nila, please ask your people to educate us what is endo, and what is contractualization, and at the moment we are educated on this issue, sila na mismo ang mag-ko-comply sa provisions ng Labor Code sa isyu ng security of tenure,” Bello said.

(Businessmen are confused. They say, please ask your people to educate us what is endo, and what is contractualization, and at the moment we are educated on this issue, they will be the ones who will comply with the provisions of the Labor Code on the issue of security of tenure.)

Marcoleta urged the DOLE to talk with the top 20 corporations first to ensure the regularization of contractual workers which he said should be part of the employers’ corporate social responsibility.

Marcoleta said he hopes the business sector would help government put an end to contractualization buoyed by the campaign promise of President Rodrigo Duterte to eliminate endo.

READ: Digong: End ‘endo,’ or I kill you

“Hindi ba natin kayang pakiusapan ang business sector, matagal naman nang pinakikinabangan skills ng mga Filipinos. Konting abilidad lang hinihingi nila… Ang laki po masi-stimulate sa ating ekonomiya, palagay ko, ‘pag nagawa ito,” Marcoleta said.

(Can’t we talk to the business sector, since they have long benefitted from the skills of the Filipinos. They’re just asking for a little ability… I think the economy will be stimulated if we do this.)

For his part, Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad III said some 500,000 business establishments are under assessment for the department to determine the total number of contractual workers in the country.

“Once that is determined and findings are submitted, then an enforcement order can be issued. Malalaman natin ilan ang mga regular na endo (We will find out how many are given endo),” Lagunzad said.

Marcoleta scored the DOLE for its failure to come up with the total number of contractual workers in the country.

Lagunzad said statistics only showed the number of business establishment which practices contractual work and not the number of cases of illegal contractualization of workers.

He added that the DOLE planned to reduce the cases of endo by half before the end of the year.

Bello had said the DOLE would end the practice of contractualization by 2017.

READ: Gov’t vows to end ‘endo’ practice in 2017

“Endo is a violation of existing laws. Ang lumalabas lang po sa (statistics ay) ilan ang contractors na na-register, ilan ang empleyado nilang na-hire, ilan ang hina-hire ng mga principal in relation to contractual relationships. But to determine whether they are violating existing laws, we need to inspect them. We’re doing that already. We hope by end of this year, kalahati ng ating mga naimbestigahan namin ay mabibigyan ng mga enforcement order at lahat ng mga nahuli naming irregular, ay dapat maging regular na po,” Lagunzad said.

Lagunzad said the DOLE could not scrap the department order yet because the absence of an order implementing Articles 106 to 109 of the Labor Code that could give a free hand to employers to skirt around the prohibition on contractualization.

The said provisions of the Labor Code detail the relationship between employer as contractor and the laborer.

“Mayroong nagpanukala na alisin agad natin ‘yun, pero nakita natin na ‘pag inalis natin ang DO 18-A, wala pong magiging regulasyon patungkol sa contractual work, at magiging kaniya kaniya ang mababatayan ng contractual worker,” Lagunzad said.

(There is a proposal that we can remove, but we saw that if we removed DO 18-A, there won’t be any regularization with regards to contractual work, and the basis of the contractual worker will be up to themselves.)

Meanwhile, the department order allows a tripartite relationship of contracting or subcontracting agreement among the principal employer, the contracting agency, and the workers, provided there is an employer-employee relationship between the contractor and the employees.

Under the Labor Code, the DOLE Secretary may restrict or prohibit the contracting-out of labor to protect the rights of workers, as well as make appropriate distinctions between labor-only contracting and job contracting, and determine who among the parties involved should be considered as the employer, to prevent any violation or circumvention of any provision of the Code. JE

READ: Labor chief to issue memo to cut ‘endo’