Employers group assails bid to amend Labor Code

An employers group urged lawmarkers to train their sights on measures that would mitigate the impact of the ongoing crisis – especially in terms of saving business and jobs – instead of pursuing bills that would deny enterprises the needed flexibility in the employment and deployment of their workforce.

Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) President Sergip Ortiz-Luis Jr. issued the statement in the wake of an unnumbered substitute bill pending in Congress which seeks to amend the core provision of the Labor Code on contracting.

Under said bill which was approved by the House Committee on labor and employment, it would be unlawful for any employer to engage a labor-only contractor or to contract out services or functions being performed by members of, or positions covered by, the bargaining unit and/or regular rank-and-file and supervisory employees.

Ortiz-Luis questioned such imposition, arguing that contracting out the performance of work by the employer or principal to a legitimate job contractor is a “constitutional right of the employer, so long as it is done in good faith, based in the exigencies of business an dnot intended to bust the union.”

The bill furthermore imposes restrictions such as: total number of lawful casual employment and contractual employment cannot exceed 20 percent of the total workforce, including the casual and contractual employees; project and extra employees are entitled to resume their employment in the same or similar position upon the next project or occasion for extra employment, as the case may be; provided that during the time that their services are not actually availed of, they shall be considered on authorized leave without pay; and no employer shall hire any employee for a fixed period only except those hired as project and extras where appropriate. Thus, any stipulation fixing a period of employment shall be void; probationary employment shall not exceed six months and shall apply to all kinds of employment, including teaching personnel in all educational institutions. –Daily Tribune