Labor unions press end to contractualization

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THE country’s biggest group of labor unions pressed for the total ban on contractualization scheme as it rejected the short-term hiring of workers for being illegal.

The Associated Labor Unions (ALU), through spokesperson Alan Tanjusay, on Sunday said short-term employment contracts, either through direct hiring by employers or through sub-contracting, violates Articles 106 to 109, Article 259, and Articles 294 to 296 of the Labor Code.

Leaders of ALU, along with Nagkaisa (Solidarity), an alliance of labor federations and workers’ organizations, and other labor groups are set to meet with Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd this week for another round of consultative discussions on the implementation of the President’s directive to put a stop to contractualization.

Earlier, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez proposed to end the contractualization scheme through the regularization of employees by manpower and recruitment agencies instead of the principal employer.

But Tanjusay pointed out that Lopez’s proposal is not acceptable because there is nothing in the law that allows it.

“This is not what our President Duterte has said in his vow to workers. The President has said to end contractualization, period. What Mr. Lopez and the employers’ lobby group are proposing now is still a form of contractualization and we strongly oppose it,” Tanjusay said.

ALU and its allied groups also called for a ban on all fixed-term employment and the repeal of all department orders that allows contractual work schemes .

The group said all employees should be regularized after the six-month probationary period as mandated by law.

“Labor groups have been lenient with government and employers by allowing them to have more flexibility in the past several decades. During these periods, employers’ profits improved and the country’s wealth developed. But workers’ and their families, who helped built that profit and wealth, are getting poorer because contractualization deprived them of their right to proper wages, adequate social protection and safe and healthy workplace,” Tanjusay pointed out.

Earlier, the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and its allied organizations dubbed Henry Sy as the country’s “King of Contractual Labor.” - By William Depasupil, The Manila Times