TACLOBAN CITY -- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional office here will continue its drive against labor-only contracting and end-of-contract schemes even after President Rodrigo vetoed the security of tenure bill, an official said Wednesday.
In a text message, DOLE regional director Yahya Centi said they are keeping their target this year as they come up with a “balanced” version of the bill to be re-filed in the Senate and House of Representatives.
As of June 30, about 1,140 workers in the private sector have been regularized, which accounts for 13 percent of the 9,000 targeted employees this year.
The DOLE regional office surpassed the same target in 2018.
“No historical data in any administration that has given you a significant accomplishment in so far as regularization is concerned. It is only during the term of President Duterte,” Centi told reporters.
"DOLE ensures the mandate and orders of the President are being followed and we are moving to that perspective,” she said.
The labor department main office earlier said it is coming up with a new version of the security of tenure bill to be submitted to Congress following the veto of President Rodrigo Duterte of the Congress-approved measure last week.
The DOLE will study the definition of the labor-only contracting and the extent of the management’s prerogative in defining certain activities to be outsourced.
Leading the review is a technical working group to be created by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
Centi assured the workers the vetoed bill will not end the promise of the President in ending all abusive employment arrangements among Filipino workers.
“We remain committed to abolishing unlawful contracting arrangements through intensified labor inspections in all private establishments in the region,” Centi added.
The labor department said it has been assessing big business establishments operating in the region to encourage business owners to regularize their contractual employees.
The region has 1,458 registered establishments subject for inspection by the regional office.
Among those prioritized in the campaign are shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, food chains, gas stations, manufacturing, construction, transport, and the fishing industry, since these are the establishments vulnerable to labor-only contracting.
The regional office is largely counting on voluntary compliance since it only has 20 labor inspectors tasked to check the compliance of thousands of business establishments in the region’s six provinces.
Last year, President Duterte has ordered to prohibit contracting or subcontracting when undertaken to circumvent workers’ right to security of tenure, self-organization and collective bargaining, and peaceful concerted activities pursuant to the 1987 Constitution. (PNA)
