In keeping with his promise, President Duterte has directed Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to amend a department order that will end all forms of contractualization and restore the norm of employment contracts through direct hiring.
The President also agreed to certify as urgent a bill seeking job tenure for workers during a three-hour dialogue with representatives of various labor groups in Malacañang last Monday.
“After decades of consistent struggle against the epidemic of contractualization, workers may finally get their demand for its total prohibition, as the President in his first audience with worker groups Monday evening left no doubt that he is not only targeting endo (end of contract) but indeed wants to categorically end all forms of contractualization involving middlemen agencies,” Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a Palace press conference on Wednesday.
Abella said there will be a “few adjustments” in the department order earlier drafted by the Department of Labor and Employment on the issue of contractual employment.
He said the labor department has been asked to ensure the order will be “consistent with the agreements of the meeting and his directives and policy on prohibition of both ‘endo’ and agency contractualization and the restoration of direct hiring as the employment norm.” (Genalyn D. Kabiling)
