DO30 in Breach of DU30’s Campaign Promise, Workers’ Reiterate Call to End all Forms of Contractualization

President Duterte made these pledge before the Filipino people when he was campaigning for the Presidency:

"The moment I assume the Presidency, contractualization will stop. They have to stop it."

"What I will do is call the Speaker and the Senate President after their elections and everybody, may constitution na doon, internal, then I will call on mostly the majority, mga Liberal congressmen, you pass this bill immediately. Senate, sabihin ko, I need it first week of my administration."

And he stood firm and stubborn in pushing for this platform upon assumption to office, up to the point of threatening big companies to close their plants if they don't comply.

"You will not just lose money, you will also lose pants. No tolerance ako dito, ito ang pangako ko sa tao. Stop contractualization. It will not do good to our country. Huwag na ninyong hintayin na mahuli kayo ni Sec. Bello. Kapag nalaman ko, I will simply close your plant and I can find a thousand reason to do it.

He even threatened to shot businessmen who practice endo or contractualization.

"I am warning you, you choose: stop contractualization or I will kill you. You know why… I am the President. I am here. I have immunity."

Many people may have been accustomed to President Duterte's use of hyperbole in driving a point. But for workers, the epidemic of contractualization has really gone out of proportion – a plague that warrants absolute containment in order to save the present and future generation of workers, the women and the youth.

Zero tolerance, therefore, is the correct and strategic policy change to pursue.

Now, is the impending issuance of Department Order No. 30 (DO30) in line with the early pronouncements of the President and in accordance with workers' unanimous demand to end all forms of contractualization? NO!

DO30 falls short of what has been promised by DU30. It will only perpetuate contractualization. No wonder that the employers and the manning agencies are celebrating it!

Workers do not deserve this odious holiday and year-ender present from the government.

In digest, the new DO simply simulated in new fashion the framework of recognizing trilateral employment relations. It perpetuates the failed logic of regulation which, during the last several decades, has allowed and legitimized the business of labor contractualization done in many ways and in different forms.

This has to stop. The perpetuation of trilateral employment relation, which DO30 continues to recognize in the form of job/service contracting of specialized, project and seasonal jobs, is more of a system upgrade rather than a change in the policy itself. Hence, we denounce it as UNACCEPTABLE.

Ayaw namin ng mga middleman, sa anyo ng mga agency at cooperative, na ginagawang negosyo ang pangangalakal ng aming lakas paggawa. Nais namin ay DIRECT HIRING at ipagbawal ang FIXED-TERM employment.

Thus, if the President was really true to his campaign promise and to the commitment he made to end contractualization upon his assumption to office, we call on him to set aside DO30 for reasons cited above, notwithstanding its failure to secure acceptance from labor groups as well as endorsement from the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC).

We request that the President hold a personal dialogue with labor leaders to exchange ideas on how to really end endo. And in the meantime, in the absence of a new DO or a new law, the President should likewise consider issuing an Executive Order that expressly prohibits all forms of contractualization, or certify as an urgent administration measure the enactment of HB 4444 (Mendoza, TUCP PL) that seeks to prohibit and criminalize contractualization.

Matatapos na ang taong 2016 sa susunod na dalawang araw. Ang kontraktwalisasyon kailan pa ba magwawakas?

Bello fools workers – Nagkaisa

NAGKAISA, a coalition of more than 42 labor federations, in the country strongly accused Labor Sec. Sylvestre Bello 3rd of intentionally cheating more than 67 million workers by issuing opposing statements on how to end contractualization or end of contract (endo).

Speaking in behalf of Nagkaisa, Rene Magtubo, chairman of Partido Manggagawa (PM) said “Bello’s statements were deceptive and unacceptable, first, because illegal forms of contractualization, specifically the labor-only contracting scheme, has long been banned by law and second, the win-win solution will make the business model of job contracting or outsourcing legal.”

Magtubo’s statement was Nagkaisa’s reaction to Bello’s declaration on Tuesday before the Malacanang Press Corps.

The secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) told the press that contractualization will end by next year by making 25,000 contractual workers regular.

On the other hand, he admitted that DOLE is seriously thinking of adopting the proposal of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to stop contractualization in the manpower and recruitment companies and not on the mother firms where the workers are employed as contractuals.

Contractual workers are employed less than six months, thus, they have no consistent jobs.

Their salary is below minimum and no financial benefits.

But, their job is similar to regular employees.

Therefore, exploitation on the contractual employees are worse than the regular employees.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) data showed that more than 35 million workers are working as contractual out of more than 67 million workers.

Atty. Jose Sonny Matula, president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), made it clear in previous interviews on him that contractual employees are also seen in various government agencies, aside from the private firms.

Matula said the government should not adopt contractualization system of hiring employees because the government knew it very well that contractualization contradicts the 1987 Constitution and the Labor Code of the Philippines.

Josua Mata of Sentro said the problem with the regularizing employees in manpower and recruitment firms instead in the companies where the workers are working that DTI Sec. Ramon Lopez has asserted as “win-win solution” (meaning good for the employers and employees) “is not a real gain for the workers under [the supposed] win-win [concept].”

“In fact,” Mata averred that the workers will “suffer real losses because the right to security of tenure is now built on the false capacity of contractors to meet their social and financial obligations to workers. These contractors will never have the means to address workers’ guaranteed rights on freedom of association and collective bargaining.”

He said the DTI solution is in fact intended to spare the real employers of their obligations to workers by making sure that no genuine employer-employee relationship is created under this arrangement.

Once DOLE adopted Lopez idea, the DOLE would be guilty of “making workers’ basic constitutional rights unattainable and illusory,” he added.

Magtubo stressed that Nagkaisa is firm against all forms of contractualization.

Matula said the labor sector is not open for any compromise on its battle against contrantualization.

Matula said the whole Nagkaisa, including FFW, is strongly urging Bello to end all forms of contractualization. - By: Marites Toledo tapatnews.com

Workers hit DOLE U-turn on ‘endo’

A showdown between organized labor and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has seemed to become inevitable because of their contrasting stands on the issue of contractual employment, or endo (end of contract).

Under endo, workers are hired for only five months and fired after five months, mainly for employers to skip regularizing them.

The labor coalition Nagkaisa and other allied groups on Wednesday accused DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd of “deception” for his plan to adopt the “win-win” solution being pushed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP).

On Tuesday, Bello, in a news conference in Malacanang, declared as “doable” the target of ending illegal forms of contractualization by 2017 while batting at the same time for the proposed formula of the DTI and the employers’ lobby group.

“Bello’s statements were deceptive and unacceptable, first, because illegal forms of contractualization, specifically the labor-only contracting scheme, has long been banned by law and second, the ‘win-win solution’ will make the business model of job contracting or outsourcing legal,” Partido Manggagawa’s Rene Magtubo said.

Under the “win-win” structure presented by the lobby group to the DOLE, the workers will be hired instead by the service providers, not by the companies, as regular workers with full benefits, such as leave credits, 13th month pay, retirement pay and SSS and PhilHealth benefits, among others.

But the same formula also states that “workers get deployed or redeployed when needed” and “companies have the flexibility to hire workers as regular or outsource due to seasonality or specific functions,” so companies can focus on building the business.

Magtubo said recent labor summits conducted nationwide were unanimous in rejecting the “win-win” formula as workers were pushing for an end to all forms of contractualization and fixed-term employment.

“There is no real gain for workers under ‘win-win.’ In fact, we suffer real losses because the right to security of tenure is now built on the false capacity of contractors to meet their social and financial obligations to workers. These contractors will never have the means to address workers’ guaranteed rights on freedom of association and collective bargaining. The DTI ‘solution’ is in fact intended to spare the real employers of their obligations to workers by making sure that no genuine employer-employee relationship is created under this arrangement,” Josua Mata of Sentro explained.

Mata said adopting the ”win-win” solution will make DOLE party to making the workers’ basic constitutional rights unattainable and illusory under a regime that promises real change.

The group pointed out that what President Rodrigo Duterte had promised was certification of a bill to end all forms of contractualization.

It called on the President to certify as urgent and for Congress to pass the consolidated Zarate-Mendoza bill or House Bill 4444.

“The DOLE secretary has badly misread the temper of the times. The vote that elected Duterte is as much about stopping contractualization as it is about stopping drugs,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesman for the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).

Nagkaisa is holding a big demonstration on November 30 to protest what it bewails as government’s U-turn on contractualization. - By WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT

High time for PH to end wage-regionalization and wage-setting at barest minimum rate

TO REALIZE the national vision of every Filipino living a life of dignity and enjoying quality standard of living as a matter of right, the 1987 Constitution directed the State to provide labor full protection and ensure the right of workers and their families to a living wage.

Regrettably, from the time the Constitution was ratified up to the present, the issue on living wage has never been addressed; one administration after the other deviated instead toward “wage-regionalization.” This consequently created wide gaps in wage levels all over the country.

Meanwhile, the wage-setting practice drifted toward containing the wages to the barest minimum, seeking the lowest level of balance in every region where the market clearing price of labor was primarily determined on the basis of employer’s capacity to pay rather than on the worker’s right to a living wage. The same problem exists in the public sector despite the salary standardization program.

This has created the condition for chronic poverty in the country, which has further deepened inequality as millions of workers are consigned to sustaining their families on wages that can hardly meet even half of the daily cost of living.

We, at Nagkaisa—a coalition of 47 labor federations, workers organizations in the private and public sectors, and urban and peasant groups—therefore, welcome the current administration’s plan to nationalize minimum wage, as announced recently by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello. Indeed, there clearly is a need to rectify the deformed policy of regionalizing minimum wages.

However, a major government pronouncement remains a propaganda if left without form at the policy level. That, certainly, is what happened to the living wage principle that has lain lifeless in the Constitution for the last three decades. But with the new administration’s pledge to rectify the errors of previous administrations, Nagkaisa and the government can work together in achieving our common goal of stopping contractualization and realizing the living wage.

At this point, Nagkaisa gladly presumes that the Duterte administration remains committed to the principle of living wage and that its planned nationalization of minimum wage will ultimately lead to the realization of this goal. Workers, in the first place, deserve not a minimum wage but a fair share in the product of their labor.

Hence, encouraged by the announcement of Secretary Bello, Nagkaisa calls on Malacañang to issue an order directing all regional wage boards to set a uniform minimum wage based on the Metro Manila rate. At the same time, we call on President Duterte to certify as urgent a bill seeking the same and the repeal of the existing Wage Rationalization Act.

Nagkaisa also calls for a uniform application and implementation of the Salary Standardization Law among all local government units. Nagkaisa strongly believes in the principle of equal pay for equal work and work of equal value, not just for private sector workers but also for government employees who are in the same bind.

It is high time the Philippines ended wage-regionalization and -setting at the barest minimum. Nagkaisa believes this can be done, especially with government treating the labor movement as its main partner in this enormous reform endeavor.

—NAGKAISA (47 labor federations and workers organizations both in the private and public sectors) - @inquirerdotnet