17 Mar 2017

Despite strong opposition from labor groups, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) finally issued…new policy guidelines on contracting and subcontracting.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III expressed optimism that Department Order 174 would lead to the reduction, if not total eradication, of the end of contract (endo) scheme and all other illegal forms of contractualization.

Bello said the new policy prohibits labor-only contracting as well as contracting out of job work through an in-house agency and in-house cooperative, which merely supplies workers to the principal.

Contracting of jobs by reason of strike or lockout, whether actual or imminent and when the principal farms out work, are also prohibited under the new regulation.

Bello said the new department order also bans contracting out jobs being performed by union members…

The new guidelines further disallow repeated hiring under an employment contract of short duration, requiring employee to sign contract fixing period of employment to a term shorter than the term of service agreement and other practices designed to circumvent the right of workers to security of tenure…

Labor coalition NAGKAISA spokesman Renato Magtubo said workers are against the new department order because it does not conform to President Duterte’s directive to end all forms of contractualization…