Nearly 500,000 ‘endo’ workers regularized in 2018 — DOLE

MANILA, Philippines — Almost half a million workers employed under the illegal end-of-contract or “endo” scheme are now enjoying regular employment status, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said since the start of 2018,  a total of 411,449 workers have been regularized as part of the government’s intensified campaign against illegal forms of contractualization.

“As of Dec. 3, we have regularized over 400,000 workers. We also inspected thousands of establishments,” Bello said.

More than half or 65 percent of those regularized, Bello said, was a result of voluntary compliance on the part of the employers.

“Less than 35 percent were the result of compliance order from our regional offices, which means that even without an order, employers are now voluntarily regularizing their contractual employees,” Bello noted.

According to Bello, they expect more contractual workers to be regularized since many commercial establishments have already expressed their intention to voluntarily regularize workers.

Bello further noted that the  Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) also committed to  regularize 300,000 contractual workers.

The labor chief pledged to suspend regular inspections among ECOP member companies upon compliance of its pledge to regularize 300,000 employees.

Though almost 500,000 have already have been regularized, Bello admitted that a large number of workers nationwide are still employed under illegal forms of contractualization.

“This is just a small number, but this is unprecedented in history of labor. No administration was able to regularize as many contratual workers and this is because employers saw the wisdom of the President’s campaign against endo,” Bello said.Last May 1, President Duterte issued  an executive order regulating short-term employment.