THE SECURITY of tenure bill passed the Senate on third and final reading Wednesday, Sen. Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva said.
Mr. Villanueva, who chairs the Senate’s labor, employment and human resources committee, said in a statement that Senate Bill 1826 hopes to address “endo” — an employment practice that denies workers a pathway to permanent employment status and the associated benefits.
It passed by a vote of 20-0.
“Our workers have suffered because of the evils of endo, a practice that corrupts the dignity of labor,” said Mr. Villanueva, the bill’s principal author.
“We listened to the concerns of various stakeholders and took these into account… We believe this measure protects the interests of all parties concerned.
The bill rules out the following practices which it classifies as labor-only contracting: the provision by a job contractor of workers it recruits and places; the performance by contract workers of core industry tasks; the company where workers are assigned, or the contractee, has direct control and supervision of the workers supplied by the contractor.
It also classifies workers as either regular, probationary, project and seasonal .
“The provision trims down the employment arrangements and addresses the current practice of misclassifying employees to prevent them from obtaining regular status,” he said.
Mr. Villanueva said he hopes to get the bill past bicameral conference committee in the time remaining for the 17th Congress.
