MAKATI Business Club (MBC) Chairman Edgar O. Chua called for the rights of management to be respected as the government urges legislators to pass the Security of Tenure (SoT) Bill.
In an interview with BusinessWorld earlier this week, Mr. Chua said that the government should not only focus on workers’ security of tenure but also the operations of businesses.
“The law should not make it so difficult and allow a company flexibility. (Legislators need to find) the right balance between protecting workers with also protecting the right of companies to be able to hire and fire for proper cause,” he said.
In September, President Rodrigo R. Duterte certified the SoT Bill as urgent, requesting its immediate passage by the Senate.
The bill passed on third and final reading at the House of Representatives while the Senate is still in the process of interpellation.
Mr. Chua said that while the organization will not give an official position on the bill especially while it remains pending at the Senate, the government should be looking to enforce current laws that already prohibit illegal contracting arrangements such as endo or “end of contract” employment terms.
“The problem is enforcement. We have too many laws but the real problem in our country is enforcement,” Mr. Chua said.
Labor groups have called for the total abolition of contracting activity, to which Mr. Chua said that eradicating contractualization, which include legitimate contracting activities, will cause problems for businesses and ultimately affect employment overall.
“In today’s work where it’s very dynamic and very fluid, it makes it very difficult for a company to adjust (if we abolish legitimate contracting activities),” he said. — Gillian M. Cortez

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