A MAJOR employer association is negotiating with the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to confer regular status on 300,000 workers, matching DoLE’s target for 2018.
In a statement, DoLE said it is in talks with the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) to offer regular status to the workers, amid a government campaign to end employment practices denying workers a pathway to permanent employment and the corresponding benefits.
DoLE has released lists of employers allegedly denying workers regular employment, which is a legal requirement after six months of probationary work. Companies resort to schemes such as terminating contracts before the six-month period or hiring workers from contractors.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III was quoted as saying in the statement that he is optimistic about the ECOP commitment which will bring to about 600,000 the total workers who will be conferred regular employment status, after formerly being contractuals.
Mr. Bello made the remarks at a labor forum for human resources managers and executives organized by the Villaraza & Angangco Law office at Bonifacio Global City last week.
DoLE claims to have converted to regular status 243,418 workers during the first half of the year or some 321,964 dating back to the start of the government’s regularization campaign in August 2016.
“I am glad to inform you that ECOP is committing 300,000 regular workers from their members by the end of the year,” Bello said during the forum. “This is a significant number which demonstrates the employers’ cooperation with the government,” he added.
At the forum, he said DoLE’s Department Order 174 issued last year allows only “permissible contracting and sub-contracting and reinforces the rights of workers to labor standards, self-organization, collective bargaining and security of tenure.”
He said the order was bolstered by Executive Order 51 issued on May 1 which reiterated the authority of the labor secretary to determine which activities may be contracted out by companies.
Mr. Bello said the task of inspecting companies’ employment practices is challenging because of staff limitations, but added that the department has inspected close to 137,000 establishments since August 2016, covering 9.4 million workers.
More than 900,000 establishments remain uninspected.
