SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique -- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) continues to campaign among establishments and businesses here to make a voluntary regularization of their employees in response to President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s call to end of contract (ENDO) scheme.
DOLE Antique Director Melisa Navarra said that so far, there were around 1,670 employees who received security of tenure last year.
“Ninety percent of these regularized workers were by the Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC),” she said in an interview Thursday.
Before, she said that some of these employees of SMPC were either probationary or contractual employees only.
“The other employees who were regularized were by the hospitals or cooperatives,” Navarra said.
The DOLE provincial director said that there are only small companies in Antique, unlike in such urban centers as Metro Manila, where big companies hire many workers.
“DOLE Antique in our advocacy campaign always emphasizes the voluntary regularization of employees,” she said.
Meanwhile, Navarra said that the implementation of the 30-day Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced (TUPAD) program has ended last April 30.
“The TUPAD program already ended last April 30,” she said.
She said that the 16,000 workers in Antique started their work last March 25, excluding the Holy Week and Easter Sunday. “We are now processing the claims of the workers,” she said.
She said that DOLE Antique will just announce anytime soon if the workers could already receive their wages through Palawan Pawnshop, which won the bidding for the payment of the wages of the TUPAD workers.
“We have no problem with the availability of fund,” she said.
A TUPAD worker will be paid PHP365 per day of work rendered. (PNA)
