Contractualization will proliferate under new DOLE order--PM

The militant labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that contractualization is allowed and will continue to proliferate under the new Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) order named DO 174 issued yesterday.

“News that DO 174 prohibits contractualization is fake! What prohibition? What total ban? DO 174 merely reiterates the bans already provided for in the old DO 18-A. Everything old is presented as new again,” declared Wilson Fortaleza, PM spokesperson.

Members of PM, the union PALEA and other groups under the coalition Nagkaisa held a rally yesterday at the DOLE while the DO 174 was being announced by DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello. More protests are planned nationwide as a result of labor’s rejection of DO 174. Today in Cebu City, workers are holding a mass action to coincide with a House Labor Committee hearing.

Fortaleza explained that “Bello is acting like Pontius Pilate by passing the ball to Congress on prohibiting all forms of contractualization. The Labor Secretary is vested by Article 106 of the Labor Code with the power to prohibit or restrict labor contracting. Why does he not want exercise this authority to prohibit? Given the irreconcilable positions between employers and workers, why does he side with the capitalists?”

“We want Bello to go. Bello’s order contradicts the President’s directive during the labor dialogue to end contractualization and agency hiring,” Fortaleza said. Labor leaders had a dialogue with President Rodrigo Duterte last February 27 at Malacanang and the latter acceded to the demand to prohibit all forms of contractualization.

“DO 18-A was issued in late 2011 in the wake of PALEA’s resistance to the contractualization scheme at Philippine Airlines. Since D0 18-A merely regulated not prohibited contractualization, the problem of endo has gone from bad to worse over the past five years. With DO 18-A rehashed as DO 174, contractualization will only get worst in the years to come,” Fortaleza extrapolated.

He insisted that “Under DO 174, replacement of regular workers with contractual workers will continue. Agency rather direct hiring will be the norm. Manpower agencies will remain as middleman between principal employers and workers. As lifetime agency employees, the best workers can hope for is a minimum wage while principal employers reap the fruits of labor productivity."

March 17, 2017

Labor groups reject draft DO anew

It’s strike two for the labor department as labor groups unanimously rejected for the second time the new draft rules on endo prepared by senior DOLE officials.

“The draft is worse than the existing DO 18-A,” declared Nagkaisa labor coalition in a letter/comment submitted before the office of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III Thursday. Labor groups received the working draft by email from DOLE last week.

A picket was also held by members of Nagkaisa against the draft rules which they claimed to be worse than the existing regulations as it subjects almost all jobs and functions to contractual employment and loosen up requirements for registration of labor contractors/agencies.

Nagkaisa is fighting for total prohibition of all forms of contractualization that leads to the creation and proliferation of short and fixed-term jobs; establishes trilateral (middleman) employment relations; and the undermining of workers’ rights to security of tenure, freedom of association, and collectively bargain with principal employers.

“Sa bagong DO ay employers at agencies lang ang panalo,” lamented Nagkaisa spokesman Renato Magtubo during the picket rally, as the registration of service providers and manpower agencies and cooperatives and the contracting out/outsourcing of almost all kinds of job is made more easy under the new draft.  

Nagkaisa pointed out that Section 10 of said draft made it impossible to determine if a job is directly related or not to the principal’s main business. As such, there is always the presumption that all jobs can be contracted out. Employers have directly expressed in many forums that they want to continue contracting out any and all jobs as they see fit.

“The draft DO progressively strips workers of all legal protection through issues, presumptions and indicators that must be endlessly litigated through an expensive legal system structured to defeat and obstruct labor justice,” claimed Nagkaisa in its comment.

The group said the draft DO is neither in accordance nor in compliance with labor demand and the Presidential directive to “end contractualization or stop endo” as it was obviously drawn from the employer’ perspective.  

“The draft DO is telling workers to make further and greater sacrifice so that the rights of employers and the likes of PALSCON and Asiapro to do sub-contracting and outsourcing business are protected,” added Magtubo. 

Nagkaisa reiterates its position that new rules on endo must be framed on the regime of prohibition and the institutionalization of bilateral or “direct hiring” employment relationship. 

Magtubo said prohibition need not be limited to labor-only contracting as compliance to capital requirements, as in the case of PALSCON and Asiapro, should not justify the contracting out of labor to them when the principal employer retains the right to control the means and manner by which the work is done.

Nagkaisa

26 January 2017

Protests stop issuance of employer-backed DOLE Order on endo, workers seek Presidential audience

PRESS RELEASE

NAGKAISA

06 January 2017

Worker protest undertaken by NAGKAISA labor coalition during the holiday season derailed the passage of DOLE Department Order 168 spoiling premature employer celebrations that they would no longer have to regularize millions of contractuals. 

Under DO 168, “endo” and other contractuals would be regularized under the manpower supply agencies rather than in companies where they work. The suppose new arrangement follows the "win-win" solution proposed by DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez.

But in a dialogue with convenors of the NAGKAISA labor coalition last Thursday, DOLE senior officials led by Secretary Silvestre Bello announced to the group that no new Department Order was issued before the end of the year.  Said Order should have been issued as planned last December 28, according to Labor Undersecretary Dominador Say in a separate media interview Thursday.

NAGKAISA had launched mass actions and made appeals to President Duterte to reject the draft department orders circulated last month which apparently would allow an army of non-regular, contractor-deployed "seasonal" and "project" workers to supplant the despised "endo" system of contractualization.

President Duterte had made a campaign commitment to end contractualization within few weeks upon assumption to office.  He reiterated this commitment during a year-ender interview with media. NAGKAISA warned that the supposed DO would perpetuate the contractualization policy that the President promised would be stopped. 

Bello said he was willing to listen to the workers comments in crafting a fresh DO. The Secretary directed all his Undersecretaries to come out with separate drafts which will be consolidated by the DOLE into a new version on January 13.   Said version will then be referred to the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (NTIPC) for consultations and will be issued as DO 1, series of 2017 when approved.

However, despite the suspended status of the new rules, NAGKAISA said workers face the same question on whether endo will be finally ended or the promise to ending endo is dead-ended by strong capitalist lobby or held hostage by economic managers.

During the dialogue NAGKAISA formally requested Sec. Bello to set up an audience with President Duterte where workers can air their appeal for the passage of an Executive Order that will serve as a stop-gap measure to proscribe contractualization until a new law amending the Labor Code is passed.

NAGKAISA further requested that the President certify as an urgent Administration measure House Bill No. 4444 (Rep. Raymond Mendoza, TUCP Partylist). HB 4444 seeks to prohibit all forms of short term employment contracts and the criminalization of such offense. 

Unacceptable!: Labor groups thumb down proposed new DO on endo

 

It’s dead on arrival (DA) for the proposed new Department Order (DO) on endo of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as far as labor groups are concerned.

 

The draft DO, the country’s major labor groups under the labor coalition Nagkaisa declared, will not lead to the ultimate end but rather  to the further strengthening of the legal standing of contractualization in the country.

 

“DOLE intends to adopt what all labor groups unanimously rejected during the labor summit – the ‘win-win solution’ of DTI.  This could signal the end of President Duterte’s campaign promise to end endo,” declared Danny Edralin, Vice-Chair for the Private Sector of the Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa or SENTRO. 

 

For Partido Manggagawa (PM):  “The draft new DO may seem to restrict labor contracting to seasonal and project employment but these employment schemes may however be extended to cover jobs, work or services which are directly related to the business operations of a company. As such, contractualization of labor would still proliferate in the guise of describing the job, work or service as seasonal or project employment,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

The working draft of the new DO was presented during the Tripartite Executive Committee (TEC) of the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) last week.  Said DO recognizes trilateral employment relationship which has long been opposed by organized labor as it undermines workers’ rights to security of tenure, to organize and collectively bargain.

 

For TUCP, the proposed DO is unacceptable.  “It is a mere rehash of what current laws already provide. It gives nothing new to workers. Change requires a DO that further restricts contractualization while a new law is needed to end contractualization,” said Luis Corral, Executive Director of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

 

‘Win-win’, for Nagkaisa, is DTI doublespeak roundly rejected as ‘lose-lose’ by workers. Thus, it is pushing for the passage of HB 4444 (Rep. Raymond Mendoza. TUCP Partylist) which prohibits contractualization and calls on Sec. Bello to endorse it for certification by President Duterte as an urgent Presidential measure.  HB 4444 prohibits all fixed term contracts and criminalizes violations.

 

The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) on the other hand wanted to directly challenge President Duterte to completely prohibit endo by means of an executive order.

 

“The new draft DO is a mere attempt to rehash DO 18-A with sophisticated words to continue justifying contractualization under the Duterte regime. Thus, BMP now directly challenges President Duterte to immediately issue an Executive Order to strictly prohibit all forms of contractualization by urgently signing a draft EO which BMP crafted and submitted to the Office of the President last November 10, 2016 for instant Presidential executive action,” said its President Leody De Guzman.

 

Even public sector unions are disappointed on the way the end endo agenda of the Duterte administration regresses.

 

“The proposed DO officialises contractualization and bastardizes Duterte’s campaign platform to end contractualization,” said Annie Geron, President of the Public Services Independent Labor Confederation (PSLINK).

 

The government is being accused by labor groups as the single biggest practitioner of contractualization in the forms of job order (JO) and contracts of service (CS).

December 19, 2016

Workers to Sec. Bello: Is DOLE really ending endo?

 

Restless over the likelihood of getting a watered down rules governing the conduct of contractualization, members of Palea, Partido Manggagawa (PM) and Church-Labor Conference (CLC) held another rally Wednesday at the DOLE offices in Intramuros Manila.  The action is part of Nagkaisa labor coalition’s week-long protest to demand an end to all forms of contractualization.

 

The rally coincides with the holding of another mediation conference between PAL and PALEA on the long-delayed implementation of the flag carrier’s commitment to re-employ Palea members under the 2013 Settlement Agreement. Said agreement ended the labor dispute over the massive outsourcing program unleashed by PAL in 2011.

 

Also on Thursday, the last leg of regional labor summits will be concluded in Cebu and after which, a new Department Order on endo is expected to be issued by DOLE.  

 

Partido Manggagawa Chair, Renato Magtubo, said consultations were already conducted where diametrically opposed positions between labor and capital were laid down. “Now is the time for the government to take side. Kaninong panig ba ang mas papaboran ng gubyerno? Ang end endo para sa manggagawa o ang win-win solution para sa kapitalista?”

 

According to Magtubo, a Department Order that deviates from the Labor Summit’s position on endo is unacceptable.  “The President has even threatened to kill endo lords. How can a new DO go softer than the President’s order of licking the plague of endo?”

 

Workers are apprehensive of DOLE’s likely preference for win-win solution due to the strong lobby of business groups, including the service providers/contractors who made big bucks under the previous regime of legalized contractualization and outsourcing.

 

“DOLE has a very bad record in regulating endo, hence, a stricter rule for prohibition is the best option to pursue,” said Magtubo. 

 

On his part Palea President, Gerry Rivera, said a decisive and conclusive government push for the implementation of PAL-PALEA Settlement Agreement on endo can serve as preview to the resoluteness of the administration’s anti-endo campaign.

 

“Limang taon na kaming nasa labas gayung kami ay dapat regular na empleyado ng PAL hanggang sa kasalukuyan. Hangad din namin ay hustisya dahil daig pa namin ang natokhang,” lamented Rivera.

 

Other than PALEA, there were also cases pending before DOLE that need immediate resolutions, especially those which are related to endo.

November 16, 2016

Advisory: Workers protest at DOLE today as buildup to national day of action vs endo:

Media Advisory

Contact: Rene Magtubo (PM Chair) 09178532905

Today, Nov. 16 (Wednesday), 10:00 am: Labor groups to rally at DOLE Intramuros

Workers are set to escalate protests as they call for an end to endo o contractualization. The DOLE is set to release by the end of the year a new order to regulate the practice of contractualization and labor groups are calling on the agency to prohibit contractualization of regular jobs, including outsourcing. The protests this week are a buildup to a national day of action later this month.

The rally today at the main office of the DOLE will include groups Partido Manggagawa, Church-Labor Coalition and PALEA.

A national day of action to end endo is set later this month.

PM: Use DOLE powers to catch endo red flags thru visitorial and enforcement authority

In response to a statement from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that there is no mechanism to detect illegal forms of contracting, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said that existing visitorial and enforcement powers enable the government to catch violations and impose compliance. “What is lacking are not the means to detect red flags but the will to enforce existing rules and laws against prohibited contracting,” argued Rene Magtubo, PM chair.

Tomorrow afternoon PM together with other labor and church groups under the Church-Labor Conference (CLC) are gathering some 100 leaders at the CICM compound in Quezon City to consolidate their campaign plans to end endo. CLC will map out its interventions in the ongoing review by the DOLE of Department Order DO 18-A and finalize its proposed amendments. Last July 1, CLC mobilized several hundred workers from different groups in a rally at the DOLE to present its 10-point proposals on eradicating contractualization.

Magtubo added that “DO 18-A sets out the red flags or prohibited forms of contracting. While Article 128 of the Labor Code gives the Labor Secretary, or his duly authorized representatives like labor inspectors, the right to visit and inspect establishments for compliance. The DOLE has enough weapons to wage a war on endo.”

“While present rules and laws already lays down sufficient guidelines and prohibitions that can and must be enforced, DO 18-A and the Labor Code provisions on subcontracting should still be amended to strengthen security of tenure and plug loopholes. For example, revise DO 18-A to ban contracting out of regular jobs, meaning work that is necessary and desirable to the business or trade of the employer,” Magtubo clarified.

“The DOLE can access employee records, review payroll lists, enter company premises any time of the day or night, interview any worker, all for the purpose of ascertaining facts and conditions relating to violations of DO 18-A or of labor laws as a whole. How can the DOLE be unable to find red flags with such vast powers?,” Magtubo insisted.

He stated that “Among others, DO 18-A explicitly bans repeated hiring of workers under short contracts, use of an in-house agency and also classifies as prohibited labor-only contracting if the subcontractor fails the so-called control test. Even just by using these as parameters, many contractors will be epic fails and thousands of workers should thus be made regular workers who can enjoy security of tenure and other benefits and entitlements.”

PM has proposed the deputization by the DOLE of labor unionists to beef up the cadre of labor inspectors and accelerate the inspections of establishments.

August 18, 2016

PM asks DOLE to inspect biggest workers cooperative

In response to the Department of Labor and Employment’s declaration that more than 5,000 contractors are to be assessed this year, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asked that Asiapro, the country’s biggest workers cooperative, be first in line for inspection. Asiapro Multi-Purpose Cooperative, according to its website, deploys between 33,000 to 35,000 workers in more than 200 clients, among them multinational agribusiness firms Dole and Del Monte in Mindanao.

“Just by the sheer scale of Asiapro’s operations, the assessment and inspection should start with it. Moreover, Asiapro’s ‘worker coop’ model has been an object of controversy, to put it mildly, and has been the subject of legal cases and labor disputes. We urge the DOLE to seriously investigate if Asiapro is compliant with existing laws and regulations, specifically the prohibited practice of labor-only contracting,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “It boggles the mind that one cooperative can have the expertise and the tools to engage in a full spectrum of businesses from agribusiness to real estate to manufacturing to merchandising and retail, and even mining. Only in the Philippines!”

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello was quoted as saying that the DOLE’s initial target was 5,150 registered subcontractors and their 26,194 principals. “Of the 416,343 workers deployed by contractors according to the DOLE, Asiapro alone accounts for almost 10%. Asiapro is as big as a contractor can get,” Magtubo exclaimed.

He elaborated that in Asiapro’s operation in the hauling company Galeo which in turn is a contractor in the Carmen Copper mine in Toledo City was instructive of how the ‘workers coop’ works. “In 2014, workers at Galeo tried to form a union but were stopped by a TRO since Asiapro claimed that the employees were their members. Later, Galeo dropped Asiapro as subcontractor and engaged another ‘worker coop,’ but it was still these same workers who were driving and manning Galeo’s trucks, despite the changes in their alleged employers,” Magtubo insisted.

As a coop, Asiapro only has 473 regular members who have full rights, including right to vote and be voted but 98% of its members are associate members with no similar rights. It is the latter who are deployed as workers in Asiapro’c clients. Asiapro does not pay wages to the workers it deploys but a gross share in the profit of the service contract entered with the client. Still the gross share is always equal to the minimum daily wage in the region multiplied by the number of days worked.

“The Supreme Court has once declared that Asiapro’s associates are actually its workers by virtue of the four-fold test, that is, Asiapro has the power to hire, fire, pay wages and control the means and method of the work,” Magtubo reminded.

August 8, 2016

PM wants union officers deputized as labor inspectors for endo campaign

 

The workers group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to deputize union officers as labor inspectors to assist in the campaign to end endo. “By deputizing labor leaders, the number of inspections of establishment using subcontracting schemes can be multiplied overnight, enforcement can be strengthened immediately, and hundreds of thousands of contractual workers can be regularized as a result,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chairperson.

PM also supported the proposal of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines to criminalize violations of laws and regulations on contractualization. “Still employers and their contractors must first be found guilty of violations and thus we urge the deployment of union officers as labor inspectors to level up the enforcement and compliance system,” Magtubo argued.

He added that “If Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello’s target of reducing contractualization in half by the end of the year, then the present cadre of some 600 labor inspectors must be beefed up by trained and motivated volunteers from the workers movement.”

In response to employers’ opposition to the criminalization, the group finds nothing controversial about jailing violators of labor laws and regulations. “Former Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz already proposed criminalizing breaches of occupational health and safety standards in the wake of the Kentex fire that killed at least 72 workers and employers did not threaten to relocate to Vietnam or Cambodia to evade incarceration,” Magtubo reminded.

He explained that “Let us not forget the lessons of Kentex. The Valenzuela factory was found compliant after three site inspections by a DOLE labor inspector who mechanically followed a checklist but did not go beyond it, like for example verifying if the manpower agency used by Kentex was duly registered, which in fact it was not. A determined union officer deputized as labor inspector would not make the same mistake.”

According to the DOLE, in October 2011, a month before the issuance of DO 18-A which regulates the practice of subcontracting, there were 200,000 contractual workers under 2,624 registered subcontractors. “Needless to say, this data is grossly incorrect and patently underreported to put it mildly. In a succeeding 2012 survey by the Bureau of Labor and Employment, 30.5 percent of total employment of 3,769,259 (based on establishments with 20 or more workers) or more than 1 million are non-regular workers, meaning apprentices, probationary, seasonal, casual and project-based workers. In the same survey, one third of factory workers were found to be contractual. DOLE’s labor inspectors alone would be overworked to finish inspecting the working conditions of more than one million contractual workers.”

“We call on DOLE to train union officers in the labor inspection and enforcement process and then accredit them appropriately,” Magtubo added 

August 5, 2016

Group asks Duterte for big names of endo lords in the country

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asked President Rodrigo Duterte to run after the biggest endo lords in the country and naming them in public might be a good step in pushing the endo war down at the ground level.

 

“Maybe the most respected endo lords can be shamed into stopping their abusive contracting schemes once they are named by the President. It is common knowledge that endo is the norm among the malls, airlines, hotels, restaurants, shops, factories and even plantations,” explained PM chair Renato Magtubo.

 

He added that “We appreciate the President’s belligerent warning against endo lords as the signal fire in a war against contractualization. But we hope to see endo lords end the practice not because they are just afraid of the 'bully' President but mainly because the workers were demanding decent work as a matter of entitlement or human rights."

 

In response to Duterte’s statement against contractualization, the labor group called on workers to organize and mobilize to win the war vs endo. PM had called on the administration to wage a war on contractualization as vigorously as the war on drugs. PM along with the coalition Church-Labor Conference has presented a set of concrete proposals to combat contractualization in a rally of hundreds of workers last July 1.

 

Magtubo clarified though that “Still the last thing we want is for firms to close and instead we aim for contractual workers to become regular employees. Firms employing contractuals should not be shutdown but reformed so that workers can enjoy decent wages, benefits and working conditions. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has the enforcement powers to ensure this and political will is all that is missing.”

 

PM has urged the DOLE to inspect all existing subcontractors as the next step from its latest order suspending the registration of new contractors. The group believes that many of the current subcontracting arrangements violate provisions of the DOLE Department Order 18-A which lays down regulations on contractualization.

 

“We expect DOLE Regional Directors to be just as combative as President Duterte and use their inspection and enforcement powers to the fullest. However, in contrast to the President’s belligerence is DOLE-7 Regional Director Exequiel Sarcauga’s lackadaisical stance that existing service contracts of subcontractors are to be respected. He conveniently forgets that the latest order stipulates that service contracts may be revoked if found in breach of laws and regulations,” Magtubo insisted.

 

Issued last week, DOLE Department Order 162, Series of 2016 and Labor Advisory 10, Series of 2016 suspended the registration of new contractors, reaffirmed the prohibition on labor-only contracting, and reiterated the visitorial and enforcement powers of the Labor Department. 

August 2, 2016

PM calls for inspection of existing labor subcontractors in the wake of suspension of registration of new ones

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to conduct an inspection of all existing labor contractors in the wake of a directive released last week ordering the suspension of registration of new subcontractors.

“We welcome the DOLE Department Order 162, Series of 2016 and Labor Advisory 10, Series of 2016 as the new administration’s cautious first step in ending endo. But we call on the DOLE to make the bold next move of reviewing all prevailing subcontractors to ensure compliance with laws and regulation,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “Should existing service contracts and subcontracting schemes be found in breach of labor laws and regulations, especially the so-called control test, then the contractual workers must be given justice and made regular employees.”

Dated July 25, 2016, DOLE Department Order 162, Series of 2016 and Labor Advisory 10, Series of 2016 suspended the registration of new contractors, reaffirmed the prohibition on labor-only contracting, and reiterated the visitorial and enforcement powers of the Labor Department.

Magtubo insisted that “We are 100% sure that a big number of present subcontracting arrangements are epic fails, that is they violate Department Order 18-A which regulates subcontracting arrangements. All it takes is the Duterte administration’s political will and the DOLE’s vigorous use of its inspection and enforcement powers to make this brave new step.”

PM had challenged the administration to wage a war on contractualization as intensely as the war on drugs. On the first working day of the Duterte administration and the new DOLE officials, PM and allied labor and church groups coalesced under the Church-Labor Conference (CLC) held a rally at Intramuros to present its proposals on eradicating contractualization.

“DO 18-A, issued in 2011 in the wake of the outsourcing dispute at Philippine Airlines which remains pending to this day, already outlaws the pernicious practice of the laying off contractual workers before six months but lax implementation by the DOLE has allowed the worst forms of contractualization to continue. But DO 18-A is itself worthy of review and must be superceded by stricter regulation should the Labor Code be amended once the Security of Tenure bill is enacted,” argued Magtubo.

Aside from the inspection of existing registered contractors, among the proposals submitted by PM and CLC are the certification by the president of the Security of Tenure bill, urgent resolution of all pending labor cases and disputes involving contractualization, deputization of labor unionists as labor inspectors, information drive among workers and employers on labor rights especially security of tenure, and consultation with labor groups to forge cooperation on ending endo.

August 1, 2016