MALACAÑANG reiterated its warning that it will close down companies that continue to practice illegal contractualization.
In his arrival speech after working visits to Lao PDR and Indonesia last week, President Duterte said he would immediately close companies that will still be practicing contractualization, or endo, after being warned by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Mr. Duterte said the “harsh” enforcement of the labor laws is the trade-off that corporations would have to bear, in exchange for the government’s crackdown on unscrupulous officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs who milk businesses in exchange for favors.
“Let me warn again. You guys in the business sector, I do not want to quarrel with you, I will protect you. I said there will be no more shake downs in the Customs and in the BIR. I’m warning you again, but with all the protection that this government is giving you, if you continue with contractualization, there will, indeed, be some misunderstanding between us,” the President said.
“And one day I might just decide to go to you and close your store and say I’ve warned you many times. Don’t abuse the people, because Filipinos have long been suffering,” he added.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said he would end the illegal practice of endo, or the use of schemes to defeat the constitutionally protected right of workers to security of tenure, by the end of 2017.
He said he would repeal Department Order 18-A, which allows contractors and subcontractors to technically evade the law against labor-only contracting by the mere possession of adequate capital amounting to at least P3 million in the form of tools, equipment, office space and other assets.
To allow Filipino workers to report illegal-contractualization practices by their employers, Bello ordered all regional offices of the DOLE to embark on a massive information campaign to educate workers about their rights and the obligations of their employers to them. “I ordered all regional directors to go all-out in informing the public, particularly the employers and workers, that we are serious in our target of reducing endo practice by 50 percent by 2016 and abolishing it by 2017,” Bello said in a statement. He also banned contractors and subcontractors from participating in the various job fairs organized throughout the country.