Duterte seeks more time to issue EO on ‘endo’

by Dharel Placido, ABS-CBN News, Feb 8, 2018

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking more time to issue an executive order (EO) on contractualization, Malacañang said Thursday, after the chief executive met with labor groups calling for an end to the practice called “endo,” short for end of contract.

“He (Duterte) asked for more time to issue the Executive Order on endo,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a news conference Thursday.

Duterte and other government officials met with leaders and representatives from the Kilusang Mayo Uno, Nagkakaisa Labor Coalition, Associated Labor Unions, Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa, Partido Manggagawa, National Labor Union, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, National Confederation of Labor to discuss pressing issues in the labor sector.

Among the topics discussed by the President and the labor groups were contractualization, wage-setting, government cash subsidy, workers’ representation in tripartite bodies, recruitment and facilitation fees, and freedom of association in economic zones, a news release from the Presidential News Desk said.

Labor groups have been asking Duterte to issue an EO that would ban all forms of contractual employment in the country.

They said companies have avoided giving benefits and other incentives, usually given to regular employees, to their contractual employees by terminating them before their 6-month probationary period ends.

The Department of Labor and Employment had issued Dept. Order 174 last year, but labor groups were not satisfied with it as it still supposedly allows certain forms of contractual employment.

Labor dept issues new rules to fight ‘endo’
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said last year it is impossible to implement a total ban on contractualization, as the law allows it for some exceptions.