@azykeith
End Contractualization End Contractualization There are different types of employment in the Philippines which are determined by the nature and existence of activities that an employee is required to perform. The employer establishes the terms and conditions of the employment contract which must be constructed and aligned to the legal provisions set by Philippine labor laws and regulations. The employment rate in January 2017 is estimated at 93.4% and it has been increased to 94.7% last January 2018. But the rising number of employed Filipinos cannot guarantee to fulfill the needs of the workers and this is due to the several problems our country is still facing on labor and employment. Some of these are the wages, poverty, employment-labor market, and the most sensitive and crucial one that even President Rodrigo Duterte had promised to get rid of, the contractualization. Contractualization, or most commonly referred to as endo or end of contract is the scheme that corrupt companies exercise to abuse their workers. This system is also referred to as the 5-5-5 practice. Contractualization begun under the government of former President Ferdinand Marcos back in the 1970s, when the Philippine economy was experiencing a high unemployment rate and was suffering from instability. It is stated under Article 281 of the Labor Code of Philippines that the maximum length of probationary employment shall be six (6) months, and is counted from the date an employee started working. Unfortunately, abusive corporations terminate their workers a month or two before their sixth month employment and this means that they do not have to regularize their workers; instead, they keep on hiring workers, terminating their contracts, and repeat the cycle the completes the process of end of contract or endo. The Metro Manila roads, together with some parts of the country were flooded with labor groups on May 1, 2018 with the cry to end contractualization. Nagkaisa labor coalition with Kilusang Mayo Una and Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa are some of the major and active groups who protested, hoping that contractualization will come up to an end under Duterte’s administration. Even before President Duterte was elected in his position, he threatened the companies and corporations that are using endo that they will suffer the same way as the drug dealers. As an action to his promise, President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order (EO) that prohibits illegal contracting and subcontracting on May 1, 2018, Labor Day, at the start of his speech during the 116th Labor Day Celebration at the IEC Convention Center in Mabolo, Cebu City. But President Duterte said that an executive order would not be enough and that Congress should pass pending bills on security of tenure. The labor groups’ response to Duterte’s executive order went negative as they believed that there was nothing new in the order because it is only against illegal contractualization and not an order banning all the forms of contractualization or the labor practice itself. Putting up a permanent end to ENDO can affect numerous things and bring new difficulties. If and when contractualization is put to a halt and companies are forced to regularize its entire workforce, the cost increase can be huge for manufacturing, construction, services, and many other employers that heavily rely on contractual workers. This may also build up the chance that the permanent workers’ wages will be decreased to be able to provide all the workers a permanent contract. It could also leave the permanent workers unbeneficial to the company because there are those times that a company hires contractual workers due to various reasons. An example of this is when a publishing company is rushing for the production of textbooks that must be delivered briskly before the start of a school year. In this situation, the demand of textbooks is not the same for the rest of the year. If the workers hired in the company are all permanent, they will pull down the company when the time comes that the demands will fall off. This is the importance of contractualization; it is a practice of companies to hire workers only when necessary. This does not only benefit the company, but the workers as well. Companies are choosing to practice this structure because of the several benefits that can get such as being able to adjust quickly and efficiently when their workload changes, it could also help them save time and money from hiring full-time employees and improve their staff’s work by hiring contractual employees who are highly skilled and could impart their knowledge to the internal staff. Several businesses can be affected when endo is removed most especially when the companies are not flexible enough to plan for effective solutions; they might end up removing the additional hiring and training they conducted for the six-month hiring cycle. Newly reorganized provisions of needed benefits for newly regularized employees are also done. According to PALSCON President Rhoda Caliwara, outlawing the practice of contractualization can throw out a million of workers out of a job because businesses cannot hire them contractually. This can also cause a drought for companies as the latter will lose an option to hire workers for the short term. When we are pertaining to economy, industry comes after it because it is what makes it alive. When a new law would arise, it is the economy that would be so much affected. First, numerous business establishments across the country have a high possibility to close down because they simply lack enugh money to pay for the financial trappings they would encounter with the regular status employment. Second, the soon-to-be investors will likely refuse to establish their businesses in the country because they might feel unsecured and unsure about the development of profits from their own capital due to the new law. Business groups such as the Employers Confederation of the Philippines and individual business leaders are claiming that banning contractualization will make many companies either close down or not be able to open to begin with. Their profits will fall, many workers will lose their jobs, economy will contract, and all Filipinos will suffer. According to them, banning contractualization is not only anti-worker but also anti-Filipino. I agree to what Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is up to according to this matter. The Executive Order he signed is the first step in reaching one of his goals which is to end ENDO. Ending ENDO simply means the contractual workers are regularized and it is good news for them because the hindrance they have been fighting for a long time has already been removed. To end ENDO is to give the right way for the workers to receive the benefits they deserve. The relationship between the company and the workers must always be mutually beneficial because they both need one another in achieving their goals. The company would not work without manpower that is why they hire workers and the workers need something in return and that is money, for them to get their needs. Workers need money continuously and endo is keeping that away from them. Employees keep on terminating the workers’ contracts before their sixth month on the job just to avoid regularization. It is unjust and inhumane. The workers deserve better. The Filipinos must conjure unity which definitely includes trust. Though President Duterte left the endo issue to the Congress after he signed the executive order, maybe it is the starting point to make the Congress move for this. It is the time for the officials to do their job – to serve the needs and the best for the Filipinos. They have been elected to their desired positions for specific reasons and tasks and it is unjust if they will not work things out and hear the voices of the citizens, most specifically, the workers who have been crying their complaints for a long time now. Many labor groups have been performing rallies for years but up to the present, the thing they are fighting for is still unresolved. Regarding the matter that some companies’ demands are not consistent in a span of a year, they may not regularize their workers as long as the worker agrees to the terms and conditions stated in the contract. This may be called as the seasonal employment or hiring of workers due to the peak of seasonal demand to which companies need a larger manpower. Contractual workers are banned to receive the benefits which are entitled for the regular or permanent workers such as the mid-year bonus, 13th month pay, PhilHealth, SSS, Pag-IBIG, paid sick leave, paid vacation leave and a lot more. It is a mere nightmare for a worker to wake up one morning and realize he does not have a job anymore due to the termination of his contract – due to endo. Contractualization is a means for companies to get people when they need it and dispose them when they see fit. Workers finished their education, worked hard to catch all the requirements for a certain job and this is what they get in return. Contractual workers have short-term and unstable employment, temporary and they are unprotected. Whatever perspective we take, contractualization is a kind of abuse and therefore it is better if it will face an end. “Filipinos are working hard but remain poor,” stated Jan Rutkiruski, the lead economist of World Bank. His statement could not get any less true because it is the reality. Our country is rich with resources and manpower, but our system is poor. What else do we want to wait and see? There are a total of 2.3 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in the survey conducted on April, 2018. Are we going to watch all the Filipino workers fly abroad, leave their family, and work there? We should stop blinding ourselves and quit facing another consequence when we realize it is too late. We need to emphasize the things that matter and could help more people. The government does not need to consider all the complaints coming from all sorts of people. A fearless government does know how to prioritize for the betterment of all and take risk for the growth of success in our country. After all, we all aim for one similar thing – a win-win situation between employees and workers. When we fight this issue together at once, the workers will be hired by the service providers and agencies as regulars, receiving full benefits such as leave credits, 13th month pay as well as retirement, social security and health insurance plans, etc., and companies will have the flexibility to hire workers as regular employees or outsource them through the service providers in view of seasonal job functions. There will again be problems if ending contractualization will be successful but through unity and good governance, the companies will find a way to surpass the difficulties and maintain their revenue.
