CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Some 22, 699 workers, voluntarily regularized by 246 employers in Central Luzon, were recorded by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Of the total, 12, 689 were regularized in 2017 out of the total workers regularized by 141 establishments, while the remaining 10,010 workers were regularized in 2016 upon the assumption of the Duterte administration.
Ana Dione, DOLE regional director, said in a statement released by the Philippine Information Agency Region 3 on Wednesday that “this initial success is due to the effort of the regional and field offices to continuously adopt various strategies to eliminate endo,” the popular euphemism for “end-of-contract.”
“We have dispatched 24 labor laws compliance offices to conduct assessments to look into the compliance by establishments with the General Labor Standards and Occupational Safety and Health Standards, and to determine which of these are practicing prohibited working arrangements,” Dione said.
She added those found to be non-compliant were subjected to mandatory conferences and were assisted to comply with the standards.
“We would like to thank the private sector for heeding our call to regularize their workers. Security of tenure will be a prevailing concern of workers, and this will enable them to be more productive and to provide more for their families,” Dione said.
She also expressed hopes that more establishments will realize the benefits of regularizing their workers and support the administration’s war on endo.