Duterte warns companies against 'endo'

President Rodrigo Duterte has warned companies practicing the dreaded “endo” to follow the law even without any audit by the Labor Department.

Companies that are not able to follow the law covering the premature ending of employments contracts should close down, the President emphasized.

“Sundin ninyo ang batas na wala na akong inspection o sarahan ko kayo. Mamili kayo,” Duterte said in his speech during a dinner with the Presidential Security Group (PSG) late Sunday.

The President said he was against the idea of hiring more labor inspectors to review the hiring policies of companies as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) targets to cut by half the practice of “endo” in six months.

The inspection, proposed by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, would be prone to corruption, he said.

“We do not have the warm bodies to go there and check and, you know, it could result in corruption again. Wala ako diyan, eh, wala tayo. Iyan ang kanilang papel, ‘inspector ilagay mo lang diyan’ tapos bigyan,” Duterte said.

“Wala nang inspection, inspection if there’s a violation. I do not need to ... Magsabi lang ang mga trabahante na hangang ngayong five months sila aalis, magka-letsihan na tayo, I mean, I do not care,” he said.

Endo or the premature termination of contract is a labor practice in which companies hire workers for less than without any benefit. In most cases, the contract is terminated before the six-month provision that automatically ends the probationary period and the worker is then deemed as a regular employee.

Duterte reiterated that he would put at stake the presidency to fulfill his promise of abolishing endo.

“Sabi ko nga: in this presidency pinupusta ko, I’m putting at stake, at stake, my honor, my life, and the presidency itself,” he said. — Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez/VDS, GMA News