Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello says the Duterte administration is determined to resolve the issue of contractualization of workers. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com file photo)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A labor rights group slammed the Department of Labor and Employment for failing to end the contractualization across the country.
“DOLE’s inability and inaction to deliver on its promise to end contractualization is utterly disappointing. After several consultations and dialogues with different labor groups, the department even ended up with deceiving proposals such as the win-win solution or the Deparment Order 30 (DO30), eventually called DO 168. They did very well in media interviews in these dialogues but poor in addressing the clamor of the workers,” Daisy Arago, Center for Trade Union and Human Rights Executive Director said in a statement Wednesday.
This as CTUHR claims that after six months under the Duterte administration “contractualization remains to be one of the most prevalent problems that plague the Filipino workers.”
Aragao, in particular, cited the case of “Mario,” a long-time contractual worker in Valenzuela who has been jumping from one job to another for the last eight years
“President Duterte promised to end contractualization and that is what we are expecting, not some token policy that would worsen our situation,” Mario as quoted saying said.
According to CTUHR, Mario, in one of the companies he worked with, has to change his name every five months so there would be no trace that he ever worked in the company, in case he demands for regularization or benefits.
“Like many contractual workers, Mario is stuck in this seemingly endless cycle of ENDO and the exploitation that comes with it: below minimum wages, no benefits, no social protection, no job security, long working hours without overtime pay and unsafe working conditions,” the group said.
Contractual workers in the agricultural sector also experienced a similar fate with that of Mario. For instance, Danny, 40, who works in a banana plantation owned by a multinational corporation in Davao del Norte, lamented the poor wages that he receives from the company.
“It is not even enough to bring food on our table,” Danny said of his salary. “But I don’t have a choice but to work because I have a family to feed.”
When asked if he would reconsider to look for another job, he explained that at his age, he found it very difficult to look for another job. “It is tiring already. I am aging. And likely, I will experience the same predicament.”
Danny’s term of employment has to be renewed every six months, a labor practice that doesn’t give him the security of tenure for his job. He explained that renewing his employment was not also an assurance that he would be rehired.
“That’s still be depending on our performance,” he said. Unlike Mario, he, instead, was hoping that Duterte would be able to solve the problem. “I am still hoping that the problem of contractualization will be solved.”
CTUHR said that DOLE’s DO 168, “further legitimizes” contractualization of labor by passing on to service providers or manpower agencies” the responsibilities of the principal employers on their workers.
“It complicates contractual employment and gives an illusion that workers are ‘regular employees’ of their agencies. But in reality, workers will still be employed on a contract-basis and will still risk losing their jobs if they are no longer needed by companies.”
Aragao argued that “DO168 only added the responsibility of agencies to find jobs for them, provide financial assistance while they are still unemployed or give separation pay when they can’t really provide them any work. This setup still violates the right of the workers to security of tenure.”
“The DOLE and the Duterte government should stop giving lame excuses but instead give workers their due: uphold the workers right to security of tenure and better wages. If the government is serious in heeding the workers demands, it should find ways to repeal laws and reject neoliberal policies that continuously aggravate the sufferings of our working,” Arago added. (davaotoday.com)
