DOLE to issue policy on contractualization before year-end

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will issue a policy on contractualization before the end of the year, DOLE Sec. Silvestre Bello III said.

"We will come up with a policy or guidelines that will be enforced by the Department before the year ends. We will decide whether we will amend, revise, or repeal Department Order No. 18-A," Bello added.

Department Order No. 18-A lays out the guidelines for the registration of contractors. Amending or repealing it and issuing a new one will allow the swift implementation of reforms that would otherwise need Congress' approval.

The Labor secretary said senior officials of DOLE will meet next week to go over the proposals of labor and employers' groups. 

"Our goal is to remove illegal forms of contractualization, including 'endo' and 'SSS,'" Bello said.

Under the "endo" system, contracts are ended before the six-month period ends so workers will not be entitled to regularization with benefits and security of tenure.

Employers' groups, in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry, are proposing a "win-win structure." Under this system, workers will be hired as regular employees with full benefits by their contractors but they will get deployed or re-deployed to principals as needed.

Meanwhile, labor groups who met at the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao Island-wide Summit have agreed on a unified proposal calling to an end to all forms of contractualization. —KG, GMA News