KMU hits House for adopting Senate version of anti-endo bill

by Anna Felicia Bajo/NB, GMA News, May 31, 2019

The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) on Friday criticized the House of Representatives’ move to adopt Senate Bill 1826 as an amendment to House Bill 6908, which approved the measure that seeks to end contractualization in the country.

In a press statement, KMU secretary general Jerome Adonis deemed the move as a “treacherous railroading of the passage of the Security of Tenure bill without harmonization of versions through a bicameral conference.”

“The passage of this version of Security of Tenure bill is not the end of endo. Rather, this version of the SoT bill will institutionalize and legitimize contractualization through manpower agencies,” Adonis said.

Adonis said the cancellation of the bicameral conference meant that the Senate version of the bill would be sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for his signature.

KMU sees the Senate measure as a watered down version of the SoT bill.

Adonis said the Senate version did not prohibit fixed-term and multi-layered contracting, adding that the penalties for employers and agencies engaged in illegal labor-only contracting were weak.

“Imposition of penalties on erring agencies and employers are not categorically stated, leaving room for circumvention,” Adonis said.

Adonis said Duterte failed in fulfilling his promise to end contractualization in the country.

“The labor sector is united in rejecting this version of the SoT bill,” Adonis said.

“We continue to call for the passage of a genuine Security of Tenure law that will prohibit job contracting through third party agencies, which has long been an instrument of employers in evading the regularization of their workers,” he added.

The measure recently approved by Congress prohibited subcontracting the same job contracted by the employer.

It also sought to limit job contracting to licensed and specialized services and classify workers into regular and probationary employees, treating project and seasonal employees as regular employees.