Davao City – In an effort to come up with a position acceptable to all concerned stakeholders on the issue of “ENDO” in the country, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) recently conducted the Mindanao Labor Summit.
Held last November 11, 2016 at Apo View Hotel, the summit lead by the DOLE-Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR) gathered labor groups in Mindanao Region to come up with their unified stand on contractualization.
With about 400 participants during the summit, DOLE Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said in an interview that this is an avenue to get the position of the labor group on “ENDO”.
“So far we observed a very tight position of the labor which is running counter to the proposal of the management and DTI (Department of Trade and Industry),” he said.
Secretary Bello explained that the proposal of the management and the DTI which suggests for the employees to be regularized under the service provider/contractor with full benefits instead of the principal or where the service is being provided by the contractor.
He also added that they have received another proposal from the Employers Confederation of the Philippines or ECOP which calls for the strict implementation of the Labor Code and Department Orders on contractual personnel.
Secretary Bello also lauded the employers for their cooperation in the Department’s thrust in putting an end to all illegal forms of contractualization and ENDO in the country.
“The report from our regional directors, indicate that we have less than 25,000 from contractual workers who are now regular employees. This is a substantial increase in regularization which can go up to 40,000-50,000 by the end of this year,” he said.
“Our time table is to reduce ENDO and contractualization by 50% towards the end of this year and hopefully by the end of 2017 there will be no ENDO and prohibited contractualization,” Secretary Bello added.
The summit hosted by DOLE XI is already the second leg of consultations conducted by the Department, the final leg of consultations will be held this week in Cebu.
“After the conduct of the consultations, we will collate all the positions of labor and then from there, a consultation from the senior officers of the Department will be conducted to come up with a unified position,” Secretary Bello said.
Other than Secretary Bello, also present in the summit were DOLE Undersecretaries Joel B. Maglungsod, Ciriaco A. Lagunzad III, Dominador R. Say, and DOLE Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao Secretary Muslimin A. Jakilan. DOLE Directors present during the summit include: BLR Director Benjo Santos M. Benavidez, Bureau of Labor Relations Director Dominique R. Tutay, Region 9 Director Sisinio B. Cano, Region 10 Director Raymundo Agravante, Region 11 Director Joffrey M. Suyao, Region 12 Director Albert E. Gutib and Region 13 Director Evelyn R. Ramos.
Kriztja Marae G. Labrador/LCO-DOLEXI
