DOLE bent on whittling down ENDO in R9
By Jocelyn P. Alvarez
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Aug. 11 (PIA) - - Bent on purging contractualization and Endo or “555” practices in the region, the Department of Labor and Employment 9 (DOLE)
The labor department targets to scrap at least fifty percent (50%) contractualization practices in the region by the end of 2016 and 100% by the end of 2017, this revealed Gay Iris T.S. Tangcalagan, Information Officer of DOLE 9 as she relayed confirmation from DOLE Regional Director Sisinio B. Cano that there are establishments in the region involved in this practice.
Tangcalagan said the department’s Labor Laws Compliance Officers (LLCOs) have come up with updated list of establishments for assessment and this will be one of the subjects for discussion during the Aug 16 meeting.
This aggressive move to strike down ruthless employers with their illegal practices is consistent with the directive of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to totally remove contractualization and endo practices in the country.
It can be recalled, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III issued Department Order No. 162-16 and Labor Advisory No. 10-2016 suspending the registration of new applicants as contractors or subcontractors under Department Order 18-A and the prohibition of the Labor-Only Contracting, respectively.
Frustrating as it may be, but endo has been in practice, affecting the country’s contractual labor force for so many years. For most minimum wage workers, endo brings anxiety, frustration and hopelessness.
Endo is a Filipino slang, short for end of contract, also called as 555.
According to Julius Cainglet, vice president of the Federation of Free Workers, endo is the illegal practice of terminating a worker before he reaches six months of employment in order to avoid regularization and the benefits that go with it.
In the Philippines, it is mandated by law that an employee working for a company automatically becomes regularized after six months as provided for in Article 281 of the Labor Code. Regularization means the employee will enjoy the benefits of a regular employee such as leaves, bonuses, health, social security and other similar perks.
Many hardnosed companies try to avoid this and employ the endo scheme –hiring employees for five months and ending their contracts to avoid regularization and rehire same employees for a chronicle of endo cycle.
Victims of endo succumbed to this scheme thinking this is way better than having no work at all. As posted by Inquirer, most victims of endo are minimum wage earners and student workers. (ALT/JPA-PIA9)