MANILA, Philippines – Over 48,000 contractual workers are set to join the ranks of regular employees, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Friday, September 8.

Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod said  that DOLE expects 8,009 workers to be given security of tenure through voluntary regularization of their employers. 

Another 40,847 workers, he said, are due for regularization upon DOLE’s issuance of compliance orders.

This number includes PLDT contractual employees who DOLE ordered to be regularized in July, which the telecommunications giant had appealed.  Japanese firm Toshiba Information Equipment Philippines has also regularized 4,292 contractual worker.

Other foreign companies have also voluntarily abided by the law on regularization without DOLE’s intervention. (READ: Ending contractualization needs 2 urgent actions from Duterte)

A total of  67,927 contractual employees have been regularized since DOLE started the drive against contractualization in August last year. 

Contractualization or endo (end of contract) is the illegal practice of hiring fixed-term employees and continously renewing their contracts to avoid regularization. Ending this labor practice among the key campaign promises of President Rodrigo Duterte. (READ: No ‘endo’ in 2017? Challenge of ending labor contractualization)

Labor law compliance 

DOLE started it’s anti-endo drive in August last year, but there are not enough labor law compliance officer (LLCOs) to inspect erring companies.  

At present, there are only 574 LLCOs inspecting 936,554 business establishments across the country.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier said that DOLE would need 2,000 LLCOs to deliver on the President’s promise, but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has only approved the hiring of 36 new LLCOs, which are all plantilla positions with corresponding benefits. 

DOLE has also requested an additional 200 inspection officer posts during the its budget hearing at the House of Representatives.

“Hindi kami umaasa doon kundi iyong pagdedeputize ng mga labor inspectors natin mula sa federations, mula sa mga unyon mga non-governmental organizations,” said Maglungsod. 

(We are not relying on that but rather on the deputization of labor inspectors from federations, unions, non-governmental organizations.) 

Bello said that DOLE has deputized some 50 newly-trained labor inspectors to boost their drive against endo. – Rappler.com