THE contractors and subcontractors of a Filipino multinational company converged during an orientation held last week by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-7).
DOLE-7 Regional Director Elias A. Cayanong, in his message, urged the service providers of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) to assess whether they are compliant with labor laws.
“We are calling everyone’s attention to voluntary compliance and we are encouraging our partners to do some self-checking. They should be able to harmonize the way things are being carried out in their respective companies with what the law provides, especially now that Department Order (DO) 174-17 is already in effect,” Cayanong said in a statement.
The service providers of SMC—a Filipino multinational publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company—converged and attended an orientation on the Do’s and Don’ts of Labor Standards, as well as on the features of DO 174-17, or the Rules Implementing Articles 106 to 109 of the Labor Code, as amended.
Cayanong said such is a demonstration of SMC in its intention of helping the department implement the labor laws effectively by making sure its affiliated contractors and subcontractors would be able to abide by the labor laws.
Before the contractors and subcontractors present at SMC 1521 Reception Center, Cayanong acknowledged the challenges faced not only by the DOLE, but also by the workers insofar as abusive employment arrangements are concerned.
“It is common knowledge there’s a problem on the bilateral and trilateral forms of employment arrangements whereby some employers purposely circumvent the law to refrain from regularizing their workers. This is something which we do not want to prosper anymore,” he said.
Cayanong is calling on all the service providers of SMC and all other establishments engaged with the trilateral form of employment arrangement to work closely with the DOLE and specifically find out whether the functions of the personnel they’re supplying are directly related to the main business operation of their principal or not.
He said contractual workers performing functions directly related to the main business operation of the principal is a common observation gathered by the DOLE’s labor laws compliance officers (LLCOs) in their previous joint assessments and compliance visits conducted.
Under Section 5 of DO 174-17, labor-only contracting, which is totally prohibited, refers to an arrangement where: a) The contractor or subcontractor does not have substantial capital; or the contractor or subcontractor does not have investments in the form of tools, equipment, machineries, supervision and work premises, among others; and the contractor’s and subcontractor’s employees recruited and placed are performing activities which are directly related to the main business operation of the principal; or b) The contractor or subcontractor does not exercise the right to control over the performance of the work of the employee.
Cayanong stressed the need for a collaborative effort between the DOLE and its social partners in terms of advancing the security of tenure among the workers.
“The DOLE is not here to punish those establishments with deficiencies. We are here to help them rectify what is not properly done. After all, the DOLE’s only intention is to create a balance between the interests of the management sector and that of the workers’ sector,” he said.
Taking the lead in giving inputs to the participants during the orientation were Director Lilia A. Estillore, Tri-City Field Office head; and Vicente D. Abordo, Technical Support Services Division-Labor and Relations Standards chief.