1But the NAPC called for a new and urgent policy on employment

relationship which will protect workers from exploitation, saying that it

was the only solution to end the vicious cycle of poverty.
Needless to state however, the new policy on employment relationship
being contemplated are heading more likely to compromised win-win
solution due to the strong lobby of the economic managers and capitalists.
Despite of strong expression of all labor groups against contractualization,
the workers are once again being offered as a sacred cow in the altar of neoliberal dogma, the statement read.
The group also reiterated its call for the passage of a law on security of
tenure both in the public and private sectors prohibiting all forms of
contractualization as a priority measure, and the issuance of a new labor
department order stating that all forms of contractualization are prohibited.
In a press briefing in Malacaang on Tuesday, Philippine Chamber of
Commerce and Industry President George Barcelon said they fully agree
with the governments win-win solution as the workers would be
regularized and they will enjoy all the benefits mandated by law.
Definitely, from our position, we know illegal talaga ang endo, okay. This
555 is illegal and then we do not tolerate it. We had a meeting two weeks
ago wherein we invited the other business organizations. And our agreement
is that once the pronouncement is made clearer, we would come out with a
manifesto telling our members that they should not deal with shady agency
wherein they are providing cheap but they are continuing this practice of
endo, Barcelon said.
The bottom line is, we want to create more jobs. Okay. We dont want this
to be stumbling block na ang mandate ni (because the mandate of) President
Duterte is that inclusion growth I hope that they would see that this
arrangement is neither pro-management but should be more pro-laborers.
Those people who are left hanging before, wherein they are workers under an
agency but theyre not registered with Social Security System, he added.
n Jade Castros 2007 film Endo, he chronicles the lives of two contractual
workers who find love while working for different establishments in the
Philippines. In it, we discover the hard lives contractual employees face.
Every five months, they transfer companies, working minimum wage jobs
like waiting tables and manning the cash register. By the end of the movie,
the love story of the characters echo the short length of time they were
employed.

Endo is a Filipino slang, short for end of contract. Others call it 5-5-5.
In the Philippines, it is mandated by law that after six months of working for
a company, an employee automatically becomes regularized. In Article 281
of the Labor Code, it says that:
Probationary employment shall not exceed six (6) months from the date the
employee started working, unless it is covered by an apprenticeship
agreement stipulating a longer period. The services of an employee who has
been engaged on a probationary basis may be terminated for a just cause or
when he fails to qualify as a regular employee in accordance with reasonable
standards made known by the employer to the employee at the time of his
engagement. An employee who is allowed to work after a probationary
period shall be considered a regular employee.
Regularization means the employee will finally get to enjoy the benefits of a
regular employee like leaves and 13th month pay, among many other things.
Many companies try to avoid this by the scheme of endo only hiring
workers for five months, and ending their contracts to avoid having to
regularize them. Then they hire them again for another cycle of endo, as
reported by Inquirer. Most victims of endo are minimum wage earners and
student workers.
Is it even legal?
According to a news report by Interaksyon, the labor code prohibits laboronly contracting which frees employers from providing workers with benefits
(e.g. health and social security). It is only legal as long as contractualization
does not fall within the category of labor only contracting, or a company
only having contractual employees.
This means that establishments like hotels, malls, and restaurants can
practice endo without repercussion as long as they have regularized
employees.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has moved to strike down unscrupulous
employers who practice the illegal form of endo by issuing Department
Order 18.
Through Department Order No. 18- A, which I issued to amend D.O. 18 on
subcontracting, we have whittled down the number of registered subcontractors registered under D.O. 18-02 from 17,000 to only 5,581 as of
March 2014, Baldoz claimed.

2What remains are legitimate subcontractors who comply with labor laws
and are registered with the DOLE under the requirements, terms, and
conditions of DO 18-A, she said.
Despite the move to crack down on illegal practices, endoin its legal and
illegal formstill sits on a morally gray area.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has taken the first step
in its campaign to end the practice of contractualization, popularly referred to
as endo.
Department Order No. 162, series of 2016, issued by Labor Secretary
Silvestre Bello and which took effect last Monday, directs DOLE regional
offices to stop accepting applications from new third-party service providers.
Only the 5,000 to 6,000 contractors and subcontractors already registered
with DOLE will now be allowed to operate.
All certificates of registration of contractors/subcontractors issued prior to
this Order shall be respected, Bello said in the one-page order.
But he warned registered labor contractors they could still lose their license if
they are found violating government regulations.
Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod said the issuance of Order No. 162 is
in compliance with President Rodrigo Dutertes campaign promise of ending
widespread contractual employment during his term.
If we will accept new applicants, it will contradict the marching orders of
the Presidentnow that we are confined with those existing (contractors), it
will be easier for us in conducting the necessary assessment, Maglunsod
said in an interview.
He said DOLE will not only check on legitimate contractors for compliance,
but go after fly-by-night third-party service providers as well.
Maglunsod said erring companies will be flushed out with the help of
concerned citizens and their stakeholders through a new hotline which the
DOLE will soon launch.
This will help us to locate those, which are not licensed. It will also help up
in case some workers would like to report any violation committed by those,
which are licensed, he said.

DOLE hopes to reduce contractualization cases by half before the end of the
year.
The umbrella organization of employers and premiere organization of human
resource practitioners in the country have pledged to support DOLEs
crackdown by seeing to it that their members stop practicing
contractualization.
The commitment of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP)
and the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) is
embodied in the joint Labor Law Compliance Code for Employers which
Donald G. Dee and Jesse Francis N. Rebustillo, presidents of ECOP and
PMAP, signed on Wednesday.
The signing ceremonies capped the joint membership meeting of the two
organizations.
Dee said ECOP and PMAP will not stand for the illegal practices which are
violative of the security of tenure and secured by the Constitution, statute,
and jurisprudence.
It is the unequivocal unwavering position of ECOP and PMAP that all of
their members should be compliant to labor laws as well as rules and
regulations and programs that afford protection and promote the welfare of
workers in the private sector, Dee said.(With PNA)
MANILA - The Labor Code provision penalizing practices that violate
workers rights -- including the so-called 5-5-5 or endo (for end-of-contract)
that violate right to security of tenure -- has not been tested, Labor Secretary
Rosalinda Baldoz said Thursday.
Many malls, hotels and restaurants, construction companies, and security
agencies hire people for less than six months, in an attempt to circumvent the
Labor Code which provides the automatic regularization of new hires on
their sixth month of employment. In their desire to get even temporary jobs,
many service workers sign five-month employment contracts that are
renewed after brief periods of rest, in violation of their right to security of
tenure.
The Labor Code prohibits labor-only contracting, specifically for work
directly related to the business of the principal (the malls, restaurants, etc.),
which effectively frees the employer from providing their workers health,
social security, and other benefits. But subcontracting is allowed under
certain conditions, including huge capitalization.

Reacting to this main complaint of workers in their pre-Labor Day dialogue

with President Aquino, Baldoz said: "If there is sufficient evidence of
violation of directly circumventing the provision of the Labor Code on
subcontracting, we can use Article 288 of the Labor Code which imposes
criminal liability for unlawful acts that the Courts can declare.

Clarifies what the law recognize as legitimate contractors as to sufficient

capital, equipment, and control over workers.

"Unfortunately, this provision of the law has not been tested," she added.

Directly prohibits repeated the hiring practice of 5-5-5 and provides that any
employer who violates this provision is obligated to regularize the affected
workers and pay all statutory benefits under the joint and solidary liability
rule. Provides that the contracts of workers with their contractors should not
be less or should not be less than the period of the service agreement of the
contractor with its principal. Specifies and clarifies that workers of
contractors have the right to self-organization, collective bargaining, and
peaceful concerted activities, as well as security of tenure and that any
violation of these shall be considered "unfair labor practice."

Article 288 of the Labor Code specifies the penalties that may be imposed on
violations of the Labor Code: P1,000 to P10,000 or three-month to three-year
imprisonment, or both, depending on the discretion of the court. In addition
to these penalties, guilty foreigners shall be summarily deported upon
completing their sentence.
Registered subcontractors down from 17,000 to 5,581
In relation to this, Baldoz said the Department of Labor and Employment has
tightened on subcontracting, cutting to a third the number of legal
subcontractors from 17,000 to 5,581 as of March 2014.
The labor chief said she was able to do this through the issuance of
Department Order No. 18-A to amend DO 18 on subcontracting. She said
fly-by-night subcontractors that cannot comply with the stringent
requirements of DO 18-A were removed from the list of registered
subcontractors.

What remains are legitimate subcontractors who comply with labor laws
and are registered with the DOLE under the requirements, terms, and
conditions of DO 18-A, she added.
Baldoz explained that when she issued DO 18-A, she looked into the issue of
subcontracting on two aspects: to harmonize stricter regulations to eliminate
the proliferation of fly-by-night subcontractors, and to ensure that all
employers and their subcontractors in the supply chain are compliant with all
labor laws.
"DO 18-A squarely addresses the issue of subcontracting and its modern-day
variant, the so called 5-5-5 or 6-6-6, or endo," she said.
DO 18-A defines primarily where contracting and subcontracting are
considered legitimate by providing the following:

Sets a P3 million paid-up capital which is not provided in the previous

regulation.

"These measures are aimed at deterring the participation and activities of

contractors and subcontractors that do not have the financial and legal
personality to undertake and complete specific jobs, work, or services," the
labor secretary said.

Baldoz said DO 18-A is supported by both labor and employers and was
forged at the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council after exhaustive and
extensive consultations and discussions which took five months. 377 new
officers to go after Labor Code violators To go after violators of labor laws,
the Department of Labor and Employment has created 372 more plantilla
positions for labor law compliance officers (LLCOs) who will visit and
inspect business establishments at least once a year, Baldoz said. The
creation of these new labor positions is part of the new Labor Laws
Compliance System (LLCS), a reform directive of the President embodied in
Department Order No. 131 Series of 2013, she explained. "We have now 574
LLCOs who have trained and deployed. They are equipped with mobile
gadgets for real time assessment and compliance reporting," she said. Under
the new LLCS, the DOLE has shifted from a purely regulatory mode of
enforcement to a developmental approach.
The LLCOs mobile gadgets have electronic checklists of labor law
compliances developed based on decent work indicators. They are:record of
compliance of establishments number of their regular employees, number of
their contractors and their workers occupational injuries and fatalities unions
and collective bargaining agreements child labor law compliances Baldoz

said DOLE has been able to demonstrate to the ILO -- which provided
technical assistance to the development of the LLCS -- that the system's
management information system is the first of its kind in the world that
combines regulatory and developmental approaches in labor laws
compliance.
Most common labor violations In its initial implementation, the system found
that most common violations are of general labor standards and occupational
safety and health standards, Baldoz said, noting that of the 9,816
establishments registered in the system's live registry, 1,478 in Metro Manila,
Regions 2, 3, and 4-A have already been assessed.
And instead of penalizing the business owner, DOLE, true to the
developmental thrust of the new LLCS, our LLCOs have assisted the subject
establishments to formulate corrective action plans," Baldoz said.The labor
chief said establishments should not feel threatened by the visits of LLCOs,
and should voluntarily comply with labor laws."They are there to be your
friends, to improve your systems, and assist you to be compliant. And their
services are absolutely free," she said.However, establishments that refuse to
cooperate and even circumvent labor laws to evade their obligations and
responsibilities to their workers, such as engaging in 5-5-5 or endo, shall
face sanctions. DOLE is very patient and will still assist the companies and
find out why their corporate behavior is such or why they fail to comply, but
"if they continually refuse even after our technical assistance and sufficient
time have been given, then we will enforce the law against them," she said.
LOCAL and foreign business organizations in the Philippines have vowed to
support the administrations fight against endo or end of contract abuses,
but they maintained that contractualization in itself is good and a legitimate
practice.
As the Senate hearings on endo started yesterday, Philippine Retailers
Association (PRA) president lawyer Paul A. Santos said the retail sector is
supportive of President Rodrigo Dutertes stand on labor, but believes that
the government should also respect the rights of the employers.
What the President is simply saying is for employers in retail,
manufacturing, services, etc. to respect the rights of the all employees,
regardless of their employment status, Santos said, and that these employees
should receive mandatory benefits including social security, maternity leave

and other forms of leave, and 13th month pay whether they are regular,
probationary or term employees.
Endo, Santos said, is the abuse of contractualization. Employees, in this case,
are terminated every five months and then rehired for the same duration,
depriving them of mandatory benefits.
On Wednesday, Sen. Joel Villanueva, the Senate committee on labor,
employment, and human resources chair, said they will study the proposed
measures filed by some of the senators, including Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri
who filed a resolution directing the panel to conduct an inquiry into the
practice of contractualization and sub-contractualization.
The abuse, I am against it. We have evidence of 555 (endo), said European
Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) vice president Henry
Schumacher in a separate interview.
However, we also have come to realize that as technology moves very fast,
we need specialists who, at a certain time, will fix things and then be released
later, added Schumacher, referring to project-basis workers or consultants.
Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Melanie Ng also
previously noted that flexibility or job-switching is becoming the trend where
having a long tenure is now less of a benefit, as technology has given
workers more options and opportunities.
They reiterated that contractualization in itself is legal.
What a lot of our members (in the retail business) have expressed concern
about is that under the labor code, employers also have certain rights.
Retailers urge the government to respect their rights as employers under the
law. It goes both ways, Santos said.
Under Labor Code Articles 106 to 109, the government allows contracting
and sub-contracting agreements.

The Department of Labor and Employment, for its part, has also issued
Department Order 18-A, identifying the illegal forms of contractualization,
yet did not ban it altogether.
Under the Duterte administration, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said
Dole will review the department order, and warned that by 2017, endo and
other illegitimate forms of contracting must be eliminated.
Erring establishments found to have practiced endo, according to Dole, will
be closed down, as stated in directives sent to Dole regional offices.
Workers hired under the endo system may also file cases against their
employers before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of

you for your contributions and participation during this
1st Business Meeting. I have an excellent opportunity to
interact with you. I have learned a lot today, and I look
forward that it should not be the last time.
On behalf of the Organizers and sponsors of this
conference, it is indeed my pleasure to make a few
closing remarks and express gratitude to all those who
made this evenPt a reality.

During this meeting, I was impressed by remarks of the

private sectors who shared their thoughts for this
matter. The government sector as well as they fight for
what they believe. The International sector who
The Congressman who serves as the voice of the public.
This meeting was a good forum to exchange
experiences.

A conference becomes a success only if participants

arrive. They are the lifeblood of a conference. Thus, we
do express our sincere thanks to all of you who have
come to be with us today. Your presentations and active
participation made possible the success of this meeting.
Thank you again and God speed!