Labor group slams employers for seeking veto on ‘endo’ bill

by Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) – Jul 7, 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) has assailed employers for calling on President Duterte to veto the security of tenure bill.

In a statement, PM national chair Rene Magtubo said the demand of employers’ groups for a veto of the security of tenure bill “exposes the raw greed of the capitalist class and their wanton desire to maintain the abusive system of contractualization.”

“As it stands now, the security of tenure bill is already watered down but capitalists are not satisfied and want it totally killed,” he noted.

Magtubo made the statement in reaction to a report that local and foreign business groups have sent a letter dated July 1 to Duterte to prevent the bill from becoming a law.

The employers claimed that the objective of the bill is already contained in Executive Order 51 and Department of Labor and Employment’s Department Order 174.

Magtubo added that “should President Duterte surrender to the demand to veto the bill, then he reveals where he stands on the class war between the workers and capitalists on contractua-lization.”

“ It has been three years since Duterte promised to abolish contractualization but millions of workers continue to suffer from this abusive scheme. A presidential veto will just be another betrayal of his promise to workers,” he said.

He maintained that “contrary to the wild claim of employers that the security of tenure bill is superfluous because endo (end of contract) has already been ended with DO 173 and EO 51, numerous loopholes allow the proliferation of contractual workers everywhere.”

“The security of tenure bill will not end endo and will not stop contractualization because it is a weak version of the proposed law,” he added.