Over 10,000 casual workers in Central Luzon regularized

Over 10,000 workers have been regularized in Central Luzon under the administration of President Duterte, records from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) showed.

DOLE confirmed that 10,212 contractual workers were regularized by 92 complying establishments.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier announced that his office is bent on reducing contractualization and labor-only contracting (LOC).

Meanwhile, the DOLE regional office wants 235 firms all over the region to undergo consultation and assessment to determine the existence of contractualization, end of conjtract or “endo” and LOC practices.

Various industries operating inside and outside of the region’s free port and economic zones were covered under the DOLE’s region-wide consultations and assessments.

Initially, at least around 2,500 workers voluntarily regularized by 20 firms after the regional/field offices held 22 consultations attended by 1,444 company representatives from 648 establishments/principals/ contractors region wide, according to DOLE.

Of the 10,212 regularized workers, DOLE said that 3,939 of them were voluntarily regularized by 54 firms following an assessment visit by the LLCOs at plant-level.

The remaining 6,580 workers, on the other hand, were voluntarily regularized through conferences at the Technical Support and Services Division for Labor Relations and Labor Standards of the regional office.

“We are hoping that other establishments, which have yet to be consulted and assessed, will also realize the benefits of regularizing the their workers, necessary in their day to day operations, to be regularized as well,” Bello said