DOLE asked to act on aviation sector mass layoffs

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for a pro-active response to the continued hemorrhage of jobs as Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) announced that 300 workers will be laid off in April. PM is asking the government to implement a massive public employment program to provide decent jobs to the newly unemployed. The DOLE announced recently that half of the 400,000 workers reported as retrenched last year were fired in the last quarter of 2020.

 

“The layoffs at the aviation sector, such as in LTP, Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Asia are a wakeup call to the government that the economic crisis is still worsening and that urgent action is needed to assist millions of unemployed. Workers are suffering from the double whammy of high unemployment and high prices,” stated Rene Magtubo PM national chair.

 

PM is reiterating the Nagkaisa labor coalition’s proposed Unemployment Support and Work Assistance Guarantee (USWAG). USWAG calls for a state-led creation of jobs, including green jobs, ranging from 100 days to 9 months, and to provide a P10,000 income guarantee to the unemployed, including OFWs, to enhance aggregate demands that the economy badly needs for recovery. The USWAG proposal was officially submitted by Nagkaisa to DOLE last year. A wealth tax on the richest Filipinos is likewise being proposed to fund the costs of economic recovery.

 

PM is also demanding a P100 across-the-board salary increase together with a new round of ayuda in the form of a universal basic income guarantee amounting to P10,000 for the working poor in the informal economy.

 

Magtubo insisted that “The DOLE cannot just be a passive collector of statistics of dismissed workers. It should also be regulating the series of mass firings since it may involve contractualization and union busting. Employers are weaponizing covid-19 to bust unions, shift to endo and deny workers their benefits and rights.”

 

PM pointed to the 300 workers laid-off in the garment factory First Glory in the Mactan Economic Zone and the 200 employees rendered jobless by the shutdown of the Arcya Glass Corp. in Calamba, Laguna. Among the fired First Glory workers were union officers and members. Some 76 First Glory union officers and members plan to file cases for union busting and illegal dismissal.

 

Meanwhile the union at Arcya Glass already has a pending case for union busting and illegal closure. The union alleges that the shutdown of the glass factory a few months ago was motivated by the company’s desire to avoid negotiating their collective bargaining agreement. Further, the union is calling on the DOLE to investigate since the factory is operating on a skeletal workforce despite filing for permanent shutdown. The workers maintain a picketline outside the factory in protest at the alleged illegal closure.

February 13, 2021

PAL layoffs meant to bust unions

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa slammed the massive layoff of 2,300 employees in Philippine Airlines (PAL) as meant to weaken if not bust the two remaining unions at the national flag carrier.

 

“Every economic crisis has been exploited by PAL management to reduce its regular employees and increase its outsourced and endo workforce. The 1997 Asian crisis led to the 1998 mass layoffs, the 2008 Great Recession led to the 2011 outsourcing and now the covid-19 pandemic is the alibi for another round of retrenchments. While PAL’s regular employees are cut to the bare minimum, outsourced endo workers have ballooned,” said Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

 

PM stated that the PAL layoffs are a wake up call to the government that the economic crisis is still worsening and that urgent action is needed to assist millions of unemployed workers. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced recently that half of the 400,000 workers reported as retrenched last year were fired in the last quarter of 2020.

 

“The DOLE cannot just be a passive collector of statistics of dismissed workers. It should be pro-active. In the first place, it should be regulating the series of mass firings since it may involve contractualization and union busting. Employers are weaponizing covid-19 to bust unions, shift to endo and deny workers their benefits and rights,” Magtubo asserted.

 

PM pointed to the 300 workers laid-off in the garment factory First Glory in the Mactan Economic Zone and the 200 employees rendered jobless by shutdown of the Arcya Glass Corp. in Calamba, Laguna. Among the fired First Glory workers were union officers and members. Some 76 First Glory union officers and members plan to file cases for union busting and illegal dismissal.

 

Meanwhile the union at Arcya Glass already has a pending case for union busting and illegal closure. The union alleges that the shutdown of the glass factory a few months ago was motivated by the company’s desire to avoid negotiating their collective bargaining agreement. Further, the union is calling on the DOLE to investigate since the factory is operating on a skeletal workforce despite filing for permanent shutdown. The workers maintain a picketline outside the factory in protest at the alleged illegal closure.

 

PM is supporting the labor coalition Nagkaisa’s call for an emergency jobs creation program called unemployment support and work assistance guarantee or USWAG. The group is also demanding a P100 across-the-board salary increase together with a new round of ayuda amounting to P10,000 for the informal sector and the unemployed. 

February 3, 2021

DOLE asked to call labor,employers to dialogue on layoffs in airlines, other sectors

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to convene conferences between the airline industry and union or worker representatives to formulate measures to preserve jobs. “Mass layoffs should be the last resort of employers and government must pro-actively act to prevent it. Unemployment is a real terror to workers than any threat from terrorist groups,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “DOLE, hoy gising, di pwedeng natutulog sa pansitan. DOLE cannot be a bystander looking at unemployment figures rise and content with asking employers to report retrenchments—which is what the agency is doing at the moment.”

PM is asking DOLE to immediately hold labor-industry dialogues in the airlines industry and other sectors where jobs are being shed. The group reports that factories in export processing zones are preparing to permanently or temporarily lay off workers in the next few weeks allegedly due to reduced orders from abroad. Expressway workers are also on the chopping block as toll operations are transitioning to cashless mode and will be fully automated.

“In these tripartite dialogues, various measures can be tabled for agreement. For example, as the economy is gradually opened then workers can return to work in batches and those not reporting for work shall be put in a labor pool instead of being retrenched. While in the labor pool, these workers shall receive aid from government and employers. After six months, employers can then decide if these workers will be retained or fired,” Magtubo explained.

The group also demands that government formulate emergency employment measures and expand unemployment insurance programs through tripartite dialogue. PM is appealing to Congress to revise the proposed stimulus bill so that aid to business is conditional on a no layoff, no endo commitment.

“MSME’s that will receive support from government should retain workers and make them regular. Taxpayer’s money should incentivize compliance with decent work and the new normal must be built on inclusive growth. Workers first in the new normal,” Magtubo insisted.

June 19, 2020

PAL layoff is continuation of 2009 outsourcing plan---labor group

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today asserted that the latest retrenchment in Philippines Airlines (PAL) affecting 300 employees is a continuation of the massive outsourcing plan of 2009.

“Since 2011 PAL has been laying off regular employees and outsourcing the work to contractors who hire endo workers. PAL is just using the covid-19 travel ban and alleged financial losses as alibi for the latest round of contractualization at the flag carrier,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM chair. PM was the main supporter of the PAL union Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) in the outsourcing dispute from 2009 to 2013.

“In a labor-management consultative council meeting on August, 26, 2009, a controversial outsourcing plan to closed down the departments of information technology, human resources, benefits, legal, medical, revenue accounting, ticket offices, airport services, catering and reservations was unveiled. Despite opposition by PALEA, on September 30, 2011, PAL laid off 2,600 workers in airport services, catering and reservations and then subcontracted the work to three service providers. This means that the recent separation of 300 employees has been in the works for the last 11 years. Management was just waiting for an expedient time to outsource once more,” explained Alnem Pretencio, PALEA vice president and outsourced worker in 2011.

Pretencio added that “In 2015, PAL also fired 117 employees assigned in the provincial airports. A notice of strike is still pending due to that illegal dismissal. And much earlier in 2001, PAL laid off 1,400 union members and outsourced the whole maintenance and engineering department to the Lucio Tan-Lufthansa venture Lufthansa Technik Philippines.”

Magtubo averred that “PAL’s modus operandi of dismissing workers and replacing them with contractual workers in service providers is pretty well established. At the very least, PAL’s allegations of losses as basis for retrenchment should be taken with a grain of salt.”

“In fact, the epidemic of endo is a worse plague on Filipino workers than the threat of the covid-19 virus. PAL’s recent mass layoff exposes that the problem of contractualization is as bad as ever. With President Duterte’s veto of the Security of Tenure bill last year, he definitely reneged on his promise of ending endo. Thus capitalists are emboldened anew to engage in contractualization,” Magtubo insisted.

March 1, 2020

Labor group urges DOLE to prove whether new rules effective for SM group, other giants

Is the new DOLE Order effective or defective in stopping the epidemic of contractualization?  This question was raised by Partido Manggagawa (PM) in a picket-rally held at the Manila branch of SM Monday as Department Order No. 174 is expected to take effect beginning this week.

It can be recalled that the SM group, through its investor relations chief, Cora Guidote, did not seem to worry about the new rules saying it has no impact to the group. “Nothing has changed as far as SM is concerned. No impact to the group,” said Guidote in recent media interview.

PM is one of the labor groups under the Nagkaisa coalition which rejected D.O. 174 when it was issued on March 16, 2017 as it allows agency hiring to continue despite opposition from the labor movement and the pledge made by the President.

“SM Manila is just a stone's throw away from DOLE so its officials, therefore, need not go far other places to prove the usefulness of D.O 174.  The regularization of SM’s entire workforce is a big thing to watch in our continuing fight against contractualization,” said PM Secretary General, Judy Ann Miranda.

Labor groups were making the SM group and other giant companies like PAL the showcase in its continuing campaign against contractualization.  According to estimates, the SM group has at least 90,000 workforce nationwide and it is public knowledge that much of those working in malls as sales ladies, cahiers and dicers work as contractuals. As of late it has only regularized some 4,000 according to DOLE.

According to Miranda, Secretary Bello in countless interviews had always referred to sales ladies as workers who perform ‘necessary and desirable’ jobs that are not allowed to be contracted under the rules. But SM justifies its big number of contractuals as seasonal workers which is allowed under the Labor Code.

Agency hires abound in the service sector but this practice is more pronounced in big companies like malls, hotels and restaurants rather than in small scale enterprises.  About 30% of total workforce in establishments with 20 workers and above is considered ‘non-regular’, according to the latest survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority.  An independent study by Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) showed 80-85% of workers in 11 branches of SM in NCR are contractuals. 

“SM should not be allowed to continue hiding their contractual workers under the wrap of different seasons. That is fraudulent. And if D.O. 174 becomes benign to SM, PAL and other giant companies, then the new policy will be a complete failure,” concluded Miranda.

PM also points to export zones as notorious hubs of contractualization where DOLE has been a failure for decades.

April 3, 2017

Labor group urges MIAA employee, manager to sue Cam using PAL employee case as precedent

Sandra Cam’s impending appointment to the President’s cabinet should not only be reconsidered, the dignity of both the MIAA employee and her manager should likewise be restored, according to labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM).

Cam reportedly made a show by threatening people, dropping names and arrogating imminent power at the airport’s VIP lounge, particularly against a MIAA employee and his/her manager.

“If accounts in news reports were true, then the injured parties particularly the MIAA employee and the manager should file appropriate charges against this narcissistic whistle-blower,” said PM Secretary General, Judy Ann Miranda.

Miranda added: “Workers are trained to abide with established protocols in the workplace. They were not hired to suffer indignity from powers-that-be or worse, from a VIP wannabe.”

PM disclosed that last February, a member of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association, Ms. Sarah-Bonnin Ocampo won a favorable settlement of a case of slander and serious misconduct against former AVE Partylist Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay.  The ex-congressman was forced to make a formal apology as resolution of the case with Ocampo before a municipal trial court in Pasay.

  

The case stemmed from a 2011 incident where Ocampo, PAL’s customer representative during that time at the check-in counter, was berated and offensively called a ‘menopausal bitch’ by the congressman after she refused to grant the latter’s request based on company protocols.

PM welcomed the settlement as a victory for labor and women's rights and a cause for celebration during the obeservance of women's month. "Even more, this resolution sets a precendent and warning against erring government officials or abusive customers against verbally abusing workers who are just doing their job," Miranda explained.

For others the Magsaysay-Ocampo case was ‘too small a thing’ to warrant court action or public attention. But for women activists in the labor movement, any misuse or abuse of power which either arise from the use of brute force by the mighty or from the blind acceptance of the weak should be opposed.

“In the case of Sandra Cam, it is the exploitation of non-existent power against the lowly airport workers.  She can be more dangerous with an official ID from Malacanang,” concluded Miranda.

March 11, 2017

PALEA appeal for presidential action on 5-year endo dispute with PAL

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) went back to Malacanang Monday to seek presidential intervention to their 5-year old dispute with the Philippine Airlines on the issue of contractualization.

 

This is the second time PALEA is seeking the intervention of the President on the issue of PAL’s outsourcing program.  The first was in 2011 when PALEA asked former President Benigno S. Aquino III to reverse the decision made by his labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz allowing the implementation of PAL’s outsourcing program that affected some 2,600 workers.  Unfortunately, President Aquino took the side of Lucio Tan by denying the petition of PALEA twice. 

 

PALEA members stood their ground in opposing the outsourcing program by establishing an extensive protest camp at PAL’s In-Flight Services until a Settlement Agreement was reached with the management in 2013. The Settlement Agreement provided for the compensation for the remaining number of workers and their re-employment to PAL as regular employees.   

 

PALEA President Gerry Rivera said PAL has deliberately reneged on their commitment especially on re-employment which is the most important provision of the Settlement Agreement.

 

“Kaya po kami bumabalik sa Tanggapan ng Pangulo ay dahil baka po may tsansa pa na maituwid niya ang baluktot na nagawa ng nagdaang administrasyon at maitawid kami sa tulay ng hustisya na limang taon na naming inaasam,” appealed Rivera.

 

PALEA made this appeal in a march to Malacanang where a dialogue was supposed to happen between the President and labor groups on the issue of endo.  The meeting unfortunately was moved to another date later this month.

 

Nevertheless, PALEA members and their supporters decided to push through with their march to voice out their urgent concern to the President.  Rivera also hoped that the scheduled dialogue materializes the soonest time possible so that measures on how to effectively end endo is finally threshed out. 

 

“Kami po ang naging poster boy ng problemang endo dito sa bansa.  Kaya’t kung sakali, baka ang resolusyon sa aming kaso ay maging kaparehong paraan sa ganap na pagtigil sa kontraktwalisasyon na siyang pangako ng Pangulo.  Dahil pareho sa aming lahat ang problema – ito ang pagtatalaga ng aming mga buhay at kinabukasan sa  mga  kontraktor o middleman, ” said Rivera.

 

PALEA is a member of Nagkaisa, a labor coalition that is campaigning for the prohibition of all forms of contractualization and fixed-term employment.

Philippine Airlines Employees Association

February 13, 2017

 

High labor alert on--workers group

The group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today declared that workers should be on high alert against violations of their rights during the holiday season. The group announced this as the PNP declared yesterday that the country is high terror alert.

“Wage theft and other labor rights abuse are a more pressing concern for workers rather than bombing threats from terrorist groups. First on the labor alert list are employers who plan to steal the 13^th month pay of their workers,” explained Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

PM reminded workers that all private sector employees, including contractuals and kasambahays, are entitled to receive the equivalent of 1/12 of their total basic pay for the calendar year no later than December 24 as entitlement.

“The only condition of the law is that workers have worked at least one month during 2016. Wag tularan ang mga abusadong kapitalista. Like the giant shipyard in Central Luzon, P100 is deducted from the 13^th month pay of its thousands of contractual workers for every day of absence within the year. Last month, an association of kasambahays estimate the half of domestic workers do not get 13^th month pay or the full amount due them,” Magtubo insisted.

He added that “Next on the labor alert list are employers who do not pay overtime and holiday pay even as they force workers to do extended work to meet production demand and rush deadlines. These abusive employers are wage thieves. Forced overtime is actually illegal and workers who refuse to work beyond eight hours should not be penalized.”

“We are also on the look out for companies who have closed down and trying to run away from their obligations to workers. They are Grinches stealing Christmas from workers. One example is VTCT Business Technology, a call center in Baguio City that suddenly closed last November 4 and left workers with at least one month unpaid wages. Another is a BPO company in Cebu City that shutdown abruptly a few days ago without paying its 213 employees two months of salaries,” Magtubo elucidated.

The group also cited the case of the garments firm Faremo International which shutdown in order to bust the union and whose workers will spend Christmas at the picketline in the Cavite economic zone. “Management filed for closure due to lack of orders but one of its clients, the global brand Gap, has already admitted that they actually increased purchases for this year. We call on Gap and Faremo’s other clients, JC Penney and Kohl’s, to act on the workers complaints according to the terms of their supplier code of conduct which mandates respect for the right to unionize,” Magtubo averred.

“Likewise on our list are employers who obstinately refuse to regularize their employees even as the DOLE issues praise releases about 25,000 contractuals allegedly made regular. Despite mediation by the DOLE, Philippine Airlines has resisted re-employing the PALEA 600 as provided by a settlement agreement. Meanwhile in the Cavite ecozone, a Japanese-owned electronics firm has snubbed a DOLE order to regularize hundreds of its contractual workers after being found guilty of labor-only contracting,” Magtubo stated.

He said that “Finally we are on heightened alert as the DOLE is set to issue this month a new order on contractualization. We warn the DOLE and the government against betraying its promise of ending endo by surrendering to the ‘win-win’ proposal of employers.”

December 2, 2016

Advisory: PALEA to picket DOLE today to demand reinstatement of regular workers

WHAT: In the picket, PALEA will challenge the DOLE on stopping endo, and demand the reinstatement of regular workers at Philippine Airlines outsourced five years ago

WHEN:  Today, September 28 (Wednesday), 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: DOLE main office, Intramuros, Manila

DETAILS: As part of the ongoing campaign against contractualization and to challenge the Labor Department on its end endo promise, the union Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) will picket the DOLE main office. The rally is timed for the fifth anniversary of the massive outsourcing that displaced more than 2,000 regular workers at Philippine Airlines and replaced them by contractual workers in service providers.

The renewed actions are spurred on by the promise of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to end endo. Last year, just before Duterte run for president, he met leaders of PALEA in Davao and expressed his opposition to contractualization. PALEA and the militant group Partido Manggagawa are now asking the president elect to make good on his promise to stop contractualization at PAL and other companies.

PALEA is calling on PAL to implement the settlement agreement forged in 2013 and re-employ some 600 workers terminated in 2011. In September 2011, some 2,600 PAL regular workers were terminated and outsourced to become agency workers. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

September 28, 2016

'Sampolan ang endo lords," labor and church groups demand

A test of sincerity to the government’s anti-endo campaign was launched today through caravan by an alliance of labor and church groups promoting dignity of labor and decent work.  Several members of labor coalition Nagkaisa also joined the caravan.

 

In a statement, the Church-Labor Conference (CLC) said, “a progressive version of ‘tokhang’ befits the country’s labor relations environment where power imbalance between workers and employers is so pronounced.”

 

Yelling ‘sampol!’ in a picket held in front of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) building in Intramuros Manila, CLC members demanded, as a test of guts, immediate action on pending cases related to contractualization effected by the country’s richest and biggest endo lords. 

 

A particular case was the 2011 massive outsourcing program that resulted in the loss of 2,400 regular jobs at the Philippine Airlines (PAL).  The two-year dispute ended with a Settlement Agreement in 2014 between PAL and PALEA.  Under the Agreement, PAL will re-hire as regular workers PALEA members who were locked out by the company in October 1, 2011.  Said provision of the Agreement has yet to be implemented by PAL.

 

“Sec. Bello: Kailan ba ang hustisya namin sa endo lord na ito?” read a poster with a smiling picture of Lucio Tan held by a PALEA member.  Lucio Tan presided over the mass layoff of PAL employees in 1998 and the outsourcing program in 2011. 

 

Aside from PAL, CLC and Nagkaisa members have also raised the issue of contractualization in companies owned by the richest businessmen such as Henry Sy, Gokongwei and the Araneta family who’s Pizza Hut was recently involved in mass termination of its sub-contracted employees.

 

After the kick-off protest at DOLE, the CLC-Nagkaisa caravan proceeded to the PAL Office at Macapagal Avenue where they held a program until lunch time.  Their next destination was the Senate where a hearing was supposed to be held the following day but which was moved to a later date. 

 

In the Senate, Partido Manggagawa (PM) and CLC co-chair Renato Magtubo urged the senators to pass the security of tenure (SOT) bills despite their non- inclusion in Malacanang’s priority legislative agenda.

 

“As independent policymakers you can move beyond the Palace’s pre-occupation to crime by enacting more coherent anti-poverty and social justice measures such as the SOT and pay hikes,” said Magtubo. 

 

He also warned lawmakers not to fall into the trap of the proposed “win-win” solution proclaimed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) which promotes, rather than prohibits, contractualization through a more devious scheme of outsourcing. 

 

From the Senate, the protesters drove towards the airport area to hold their final program, first at PAL’s In-Flight Center in Terminal 2 and at Gokongwei’s Cebu Pacific in Terminal 4.  A candle-lighting at Nichols concluded the anti-endo caravan.

September 19, 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

Workers call for war vs endo; respect for human rights in war vs drugs

On the occasion of the opening of the new Congress and the SONA speech of President Rodrigo Duterte, the workers group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on the government to wage a vigorous war against contractualization and poverty. At the same time, it urged that human rights and due process be respected in the war on drugs in the wake of hundreds of extra-judicial killings since the new President was elected.

PM members from Metro Manila and Calabarzon are joining a multisectoral mobilization from various militant groups. They will assemble at 1:00 pm along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City and then march towards Batasang Pambansa.

“Ikulong ang mga tulak ng endo at contractualization lords. Buhayin wag patayin ang human rights. Ito ang panawagan ng mga manggagawa,” urged Rene Magtubo, PM chair.

PM is also leading a mobilization of workers and poor in Cebu today to urge the administration to deliver on its campaign promise of ending contractualization. At the same time, PM in Cebu is calling for a stop to the wave of extra-judicial killings. Yesterday, the spouse of one PM-Cebu  leader was killed by police.

“Every Filipino deserves their day in court. Instead hundreds of poor people are being massacred in the course of the war on drugs,” declared Dennis Derige, PM-Cebu spokesperson.

“Contractualization, just like drugs, destroys lives, wreaks families and ruins the future of the youth. How can a decent life for a family be sustained when breadwinners are endos who are paid poverty wages without benefits and who lose their jobs after five months? We would like to see big time pushers of contractualization, among whom are the richest capitalists, be penalized as criminals,” exclaimed Magtubo.

Last July 1, PM and other labor and church groups held a rally at the Department of Labor and Employment and presented a 10-point proposal to end endo in a bid to engage the new administration on the contractualization issue.

The group’s SONA mobilization today is part of its anti-endo contractualization. PM vowed to escalate the campaign against endo and win pending labor dispute such as the outsourcing row at Philippine Airlines.

July 25, 2016