THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment (DoLE), in a press briefing on Monday, disclosed a list of “companies engaged and suspected to be engaged in labor-only contracting,” as the list distributed to the media was titled.
DoLE said in the list that a total of 3,377 companies “were found to be engaged and suspected to be engaged in labor-only contracting.” Of these companies, 2,610 are “suspected to be engaged in labor-only contracting,” and 767 are “found to be engaged in labor-only contracting.”
The list is in line with Executive Order (EO) No. 51, President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s May 1 directive on job contractualization, which includes a provision on DoLE’s monitoring of companies in line with the EO.
The DoLE list said a total 224,852 workers were affected by labor-only contracting, adding that the “top 20 companies with the most number of affected workers are as follows”:
1. Jollibee Food Corporation (with 14,960 affected workers)
2. Dole Philippines, Inc. (10,521)
3. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (8,310)
4. Philsaga Mining Corporation (6,524)
5. General Tuna Corporation (5,216)
6. Sumi Phils. Wiring Systems Corporation (4,305)
7. Franklin Baker Inc. (3,400)
8. Pilipinas Kyohritsu, Inc. (3,161)
9. Furukawa Automotive Systems Phil. Inc. (2,863)
10. Magnolia Inc. (2,248)
11. KCC Property Holdings, Inc. (1,802)
12. Sumifru Philippines, Corp. (1,687)
13. Hinatuan Mining Corporation (1,673)
14. KCC Mall De Zamboanga (1,598)
15. Brother Industries (Philippines) Inc. (1,582)
16. Philippine Airlines & PAL Express (1,483)
17. Nidec Precision Philippines Corporation (1,400)
18. Peter Paul Phil. Corporation (1,362)
19. Dolefil Upper Valley Operations (1,183)
20. SOLE-Stanfilco (1,131)
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said on Monday’s briefing, “It is not to put the companies in (a) bad light. It is to emphasize na dapat natin irespeto ang security of tenure ng ating manggagawa (It is to emphasize that we need to respect the security of tenure of our workers).”
“He’s serious in his advocacy (of) putting an end to ‘endo’ and, at the same time, putting an end to illegal, unlawful contractual arrangement,” Mr. Bello also said regarding Mr. Duterte.
He added that “We will announce they complied finally” once the companies listed by DoLE do so.
Among the companies sought for comment, PLDT said on Monday: “We have received a copy of the decision of the DoLE Secretary on the PLDT case. After studying it with the assistance of our legal counsel, we decided to seek a review of the decision by the Court of Appeals.”
“Our view is that certain aspects of the decision were inconsistent with applicable law, jurisprudence, and the documentary and testimonial evidence presented to the DoLE Secretary. For this purpose, we have filed a petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals,” the company also said.
Hastings Holdings, Inc. — a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc. — maintains interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group.
Also sought for comment, Jose Bayani D. Baylon, vice-president of Nickel Asia’s Corp. Communications said via text: “That’s an old report. Referring to Hinatuan Mining. I am aware that our Mine management has cleared that up and taken action to address it.” — Gillian M. Cortez with Janina C. Lim

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