MANILA, Philippines – Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III is still unimpressed with popular Philippine fast food company Jollibee Foods Corporation’s commitment to regularize 3,000 of its workers annually. 

On Thursday, December 27, Bello said Jollibee is offering to regularize 3,000 of its contractual employees annually, an increase from the 1,000 workers it regularized this year.  

But the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) chief said Jollibee should step up against labor contractualization.

“In fairness, Jollibee is now regularizing. Pero hindi pa ako masyadong completely happy kasi maliit ang kanilang regularization program. Sabi ko, please, up your ante,” said Bello in a press conference in Malacañang.

(In fairness, Jollibee is now regularizing its employees. But I’m not completely happy because their regularization program is too small. I told the, please, up your ante.)

“They’re offering to regularize 3,000 a year. Sabi ko, kulang. Ang SM kako 10,000 a year. Baka puwedeng pantayan niyo. They will study,” he added.

 (They’re offering to regularize 3,000 a year. I told them this is not enough. SM will regularize 10,000 a year. Perhaps they can match that. They will study it.)

DOLE has intensified labor law compliance inspections this year and came up with a list of companies engaging in labor-only contracting, which included Jollibee and PLDT.  

In April, DOLE ordered Jollibee regularize more than 6,482 workers. (READ: Jollibee stocks suffer after DOLE order to regularize over 6,000 workers)

The fast food chain was also ordered to refund to 426 workers more than P15 million in “illegally collected payments” from the company’s “Coop Share, Coop Christmas Paluwagan Fund, and Coop Savings Fund.” – Rappler.com