Contractual workers are more likely to beat a new applicant for a regular position in their company if they possess the essential skills and attitude, according to a new study from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
In its 26-page report on Company Best Practices on Regularization of Workers in Contracting Arrangements, the DOLE’s Institute of Labor Studies (ILS) identified the qualifications sought by each industry in regularizing their contractual employees.
The ILS study covered 15 companies in industries listed with high incidence of contractualization—manufacturing; wholesale and retail; and hotel and restaurants.
In the manufacturing sector, the foremost consideration for the regularization involves the familiarity of a contractual worker on the existing operations of a company.
“It was deduced that in this kind of industry, ‘quality’ is more important than ‘quantity.’ Hence, there are tasks/functions that required a longer period of training for an employee to be adept and efficient in discharging such tasks/functions, and for this reason respondent manufacturing firms provided technical trainings to agency-hired workers,” Ivan Villena, an ILS researcher and writer of the new report, said.
For the wholesale and retail industry, a contractual worker’s exposure in the work culture in a company is given premium for their regularization.
“Wholesale and retail establishments employee’s work attitude is taken with great consideration when regularizing an employee,” Villena added.
Meanwhile, hotels and restaurants are more likely to regularize a contractual employee if it will translate to a higher profit.
“Worth mentioning among the practices is one respondent-HRM [human resource manager] who conducted a feasibility study on how much savings the hotel will incur if they employ regular workers instead of agency-hired workers,” Villena said.
Regardless of industry, Villena added most of the companies in the study said they no longer require their regularized employees to undergo a probationary period.
He noted the employers benefited from the arrangement through the better performance from their employees, while the regularized workers got additional benefits, including medical coverage and paid leaves.
ILS conducted the study amid the DOLE’s ongoing campaign to restrict contractual employment in the country.
Villena said the best practices they have identified in their study will help the DOLE encourage more employers to regularize their agency-hired workers.
He added this could be achieved by mainstreaming these best practices for regularization of contractual workers and giving recognition to companies that practice it.
The DOLE is targeting to regularize 300,000 contractual workers this year.
It was able to regularize over 125,000 contractual workers since President Duterte started his term. Of this figure, 8,697 were voluntarily regularized by their employers.