DOLE gears up for start of ‘stop endo’ campaign

Director Exequiel R. Sarcauga of the Department of Labor in Central Visayas discusses labor contractualization during the CCCI Labor Relations Forum at the Golden Prince Hotel in Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

With the consultations on labor contractualization completed, the Labor Department will soon start assessing business establishments as part of its implementation of the “Stop Endo” campaign.

“The central office (DOLE) has already finished its three consultations in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. They will be collating all inputs, finalize forms, and once they have the documents all ready, we will start,” said Exequiel Sarcauga, Department of Labor and Employment Central Visayas (DOLE-7) director, during a recent forum about labor contractualization organized by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Some 150 private sector representatives attended the forum last week.

Sarcauga said they would start assessing business establishments once the necessary documents would be ready.

He also revealed that labor law compliance officers would also be tasked to determine whether a company would be practicing the prohibited contracting.

Regularize target

Nationwide, the DOLE targets to regularize 50 percent of all contractual arrangements by year-end and pursue the other half by December 2017.

According to data from the Bureau of Working Conditions as of May 2016, there are 5,150 regular contractors and subcontractors with 416,343 workers deployed across 26,194 principals in Central Visayas alone.

“It is a tall order for us given the limited time we have, but we can always try,” said Sarcauga.

He also said that companies need not fear the government drive on labor contractualization as long as they comply with labor laws and standards.

Sarcauga said he was expecting full support and voluntary compliance from the business sector in Cebu and the rest of the region.

Law and tenure

He added that they do not intend to sacrifice the law, if only to sacrifice security of tenure due to a regular worker.

Among the marching orders President Rodrigo Duterte gave upon assuming office was to end contractualization in business establishments.

The President’s camp, however, clarified that they would not be eliminating contracting per se, but that which is prohibited by law.

Duterte was referring to the “end of contract” scheme (colloquially known as endo) practiced by several companies wherein contracts with workers would be routinely ended on the fifth month to avoid having to regularize the workers.

Lawyer Roy Buenafe, DOLE-7 chief legal counsel, said only “illegitimate” arrangements will be eliminated under the Duterte administration.

Kinds of contracting

He cited two kinds of contracting or subcontracting under existing labor laws — job contracting, which is permissible; and labor-only contracting, which is prohibited.

Buenafe said there is job contracting when the employer (principal) agrees to put out with another (contractor) the performance or completion of a specific service within a definite or predetermined period.

Banks seeking out contractors to provide security guards for their establishments is an example of this kind of contracting.

On the other hand, Buenafe said there would be labor-only contracting when the contractor or subcontractor would merely recruit, supply, or place workers to perform a job, work or service for a company.

He also said that it would be considered labor-only when the contractor does not have substantial capital or investment to actually perform the tasks under its own account and responsibility and the employees recruited would be performing activities directly related to the main business of the company served by the contractor.