Dole starts enforcing program to stop ‘endo’ Cebu employer wants to retrench 400 contractual workers
AMID the promise of President Rodrigo Duterte to stop “endo” or the practice of giving workers short-term contracts then letting them go before they are entitled to the benefits of full-time employment, an employer in Cebu is seeking permission to terminate the services of 400 contractual workers for redundancy.
The employer’s request has been submitted to the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) 7, said Director Exequiel Sarcauga.
Sarcauga said the employer is now the subject of labor inspection, evaluation and assessment.
He said that the labor department will not allow any employer to terminate the services of contractual workers to escape from the liability of Duterte’s order.
Instead of practicing endo, Sarcauga urged employers regularize their contractual employees, even if their contracts have not yet expired.
Speaking during the 888 News Forum, Sarcauga said they have started implementing the plan to regularize employees in various business establishments and manufacturing firms.
He said that the order of Duterte is to regularize contractual employees at least 50 percent by Dec. 31, 2016 and to complete the regularization of workers by Dec. 31, 2017.
“We have already met some businessmen and we have profiled some service providers indicating some of the principals they are engaging with, the total number of workers that they are deploying and other information,” Sarcauga said.
He said there are others who into the practice of subcontracting but are not registered with Dole, which is a violation of Department Order 18-a.
Sarcauga said that during their meeting with Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III last July 18 and19, he was assigned to a quick assessment of several industries in Cebu and the rest of Central Visayas but for one sector only.
“Of the total employment these establishments are having, 50 percent are regular and the other 50 percent are contractual. This is the position that is provided for by a company. You can noticed that if there are 60 people in this particular position, about 35 are regular and 25 are contractual,” said Sarcauga.
Sarcauga said that there are some critical positions in companies that they have to hire regular workers because they cannot assign it to contractual workers.
He said that there are companies that would hire extra number of workers, for a certain period of time, when there are extra orders of their products.