THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) should not brag about regularizing 45,605 government personnel since the entire country has 24.4 million contractual workers.
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMO) Chairman Elmer Labog said before the Dole crows about its “success”, it must also “ponder just how iniquitous its latest department order on scrubbing labor-only contractualization really is”.
Labog noted that it was Duterte’s campaign promise to wipe out contractualization once he wins.
“To turn Duterte’s promise to reality, the government should aim to regularize all contractual workers hired under all forms of contractualization and not just a small fraction,” he added.
“Workers cannot be expected to instantly rejoice over the Dole’s claim, since 45,605 is just a small fraction of the estimated 24.4 million contractual Filipino workers. Worse, the Dole’s drive only aims to regularize those hired under labor-only contracting scheme while neglecting the fact that the majority of contractual workers are employed under agencies through job contracting schemes,” Labog added.
“There is also a question on how the DOLE regularized these 45,000 workers. It would be grossly condemnable if they were regularized under labor-contracting agencies and not through absorption by their principal employers, which is the drive of the recently implemented Department Order 174. Regularization through agencies is still contractualization. If such were the case, then the DOLE did not regularize workers but merely facilitated a legalized modern-day slave trade,” Labog said.
“Filipino workers remain steadfast and assertive of our position that all forms of contractualization must stop. Both the illegal labor-only contracting and the legal job contracting violate our rights and dignity and should, therefore, be banned,” he added.
“We challenge President Duterte to fulfill his commitment to heed our emand to end contractualization. If Duterte wants his promise to become a reality, he should junk the Dole’s Department Order 174 and work toward the ending all forms of contractualization and regularize all 24.4 million contractual workers in the country,” Labog also said.