Labor sector sees more endo-hiring

President Rodrigo Duterte’s rejection of the Security of Tenure bill will further perpetuate the hiring of contractual workers who will be terminated after only five months and rehired on the same contractual basis, labor groups said Friday.

The measure vetoed by the President prohibits hiring employees on fixed-term contracts or definite periods except in cases of overseas Filipino workers, and workers on probation.

Temporary replacements to absent regular employees not exceeding six months, as well as project-based employees, and seasonal workers are also covered by what is more popularly called the anti-endo bill.

Leody de Guzman of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino and Pagkakaisa ng Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno issued the warning in response to Duterte’s justification of why he rejected he bill.

In his veto message sent to Congress on Friday, Duterte said the bill “unduly broadens the scope and definition of prohibited labor-only contracting, effectively prescribing forms of contractualization that are not particularly unfavorable to the employees involved.”

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) vowed to police its ranks to “ensure that endo is ended in the entire country.”

“We’re very glad that Malacañang has finally made up its mind that the Security of Tenure bill will only lead to loss of jobs and investments,” ECOP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis told GMA News Online.

The employers group earlier said that the measure could discourage investors and eventually result in job losses.

Endo is derived from the phrase “end of contract,” a practice among employers of hiring workers for short-term employment under fixed-term contracts—usually five months—without promoting the employee to a regular position.

“Dalawa ang posibleng mangyari. Una, panatilihin ang dating sistema na laganap  pa rin ang mga fly-by-night contractor at mga contractor na  ino-operate mismo ng may-ari ng kompanya. Ikalawa, mas luluwagan pa para sa mga kapitalista ang panukalang batas,” De Guzman told GMA News Online.

“Itong veto ay para sa mga kapitalista at hindi sa kahilingan ng mga manggagawa na ganap na pagbabawal ng kontraktwalisasyon sa pamamagitan ng pagtatanggal sa trilateral arrangement sa mga manpower agencies at service cooperatives,” De Guzman noted.

Third party manpower agencies do not necessarily put employees on a better path to regularization, he argued.

“Ang hiling namin, direct hiring. Alisin na ang third party dahil wala silang silbi sa productivity ng mga manggagawa. Pahirap pa sila,” De Guzman said.

“Pag iwas lang ito ng mga kapitalista sa constitutional provision ng just share ng mga manggagawa sa fruit of production kaya gusto nilang maging empleyado kami ng mga manpower sa halip na sa kanila,” he added.

Duterte clearly turned his back on workers, according to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

“The most democratic and most peaceful struggle of ordinary workers out of their poverty trap to endo are shut by a man who promised to introduce genuine change and uplift them,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said in a separate statement.

“President Duterte certified the Security of Tenure bill as an urgent measure in his 2018 State of the Nation Address, saying he did not have the power to end endo and only Congress, which has the legislative power, could do this. Now that Congress has acted on his certification, why veto something he certified as an urgent national bill?”

TUCP the measure was not about to disincentivize the business sector and investors—the exploitative labor policies that scare investors.

“We need a robust, skilled, productive, and happy workforce, and yet, pushing down labor cost and restricting labor rights has become more convenient to the economic managers, rather than working for solutions to the topmost concern of investors,” it said.

“The TUCP sees no disincentivization in the measure because the bill still provides business and employers the management prerogative to hire seasonal and contractual workers,” it added.

The Pagkakaisa ng Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Pamantik-KMU) condemned the President’s action as the total opposite to his campaign promise of ending contractualization in one month.

“Duterte has only put the nail on the coffin on the workers' call for regular jobs under his administration, Similarly, there remains no justice for the more than 30,000 workers in the Southern Tagalog region that have been declared regular workers but have not returned even for a single minute as regular workers,” Pamantik-KMU said in a statement.

“In light of his betrayal against the people, we enjoin the call to intensify the workers' fights outside the walls of Congress. Manggagawang kontraktwal, gawing regular.” —With a report by Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News