DOLE: 580,539 workers regularized

MANILA, Philippines — Over half a million contractual workers nationwide have been granted regular employment status, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported on Tuesday.

A total of 580,539 workers have been regularized since the Durterte administration started the campaign against illegal contractualization in 2016, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.

Bello said the regularization of workers was a result of DOLE’s intensified labor inspections of commercial establishments nationwide.

He said the DOLE inspected over 219,141 establishments covering around 13.69 million workers this year.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the number of workers regularized in the past three years remained low.

“This is a drop in the bucket as there are around nine million contractual workers in the country,” TUCP vice president Louie Corral said.

Corral reminded President Duterte of his promise to stop “endo” or end of contract and other illegal forms of job contractualization.

The TUCP official asked the DOLE to verify its figures.

Corral said the government should strictly enforce regulations protecting the workers’ security of tenure and prohibiting contracting of jobs.