‘No more contract workers by 2017’

CEBU, Philippines - At least 50 percent of the contractual workers in Central Visayas are targeted to be regularized by end of this year and 100 percent by end of 2017, the regional labor department said.

Three options will be available for workers who may be terminated with the implementation of “endo” or ending contractualization, according to Department of Labor and Employement-7 Director Exequiel Sarcauga. These include referral of workers to other companies for employment; provision of livelihood assistance; and re-training of skills in coordination with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Recently, the regional agency conducted orientation to 200 locators of the Mactan Export Processing Zones 1, MEPZ 2 and Cebu Light Industrial Park in Lapu-Lapu City about endo or the abusive and prohibited practices of contractualization.

“The directives of President Duterte necessitated us to transform and change the way we do things. With his marching orders on endo, there is a need to treat workers as partners and respect their rights at work all the time,” said Sarcauga.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III recently issued Labor Advisory No. 10 Series of 2016 emphasizing the prohibition against labor-only contracting arrangements and Department Order 162 Series of 2016 suspending the registration of new applicants as contractors or subcontractors under Department Order No. 18-A reiterating the secretary’s commitment to the President.

Senator Joel Villanueva, chairman of Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources, who scheduled an organizational meeting with preliminary discussions on labor contractualization yesterday, said that in spite of the DOLE order prohibiting labor-only contracting, labor groups have decried the continuous abuses on the system. (FREEMAN)