Labor groups cool to proposed Tokhang vs abusive employers

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang’s plan to conduct “Oplan Tokhang” among “abusive and recalcitrant” employers and business owners cannot appease workers after President Duterte failed to ban contractualization.

According to Alan Tanjusay, spokesman of the Association of Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, such a campaign is not enough to compensate for the failure of Duterte to sign an executive order (EO) that would ban contractual employment in the country. 

“Oplan Tokhang is good but it’s too late to appease the workers and labor groups who were deeply dismayed over non-signing of the labor-drafted EO addressing short-term, precarious work, endo and contractualization work scheme,” he said.

Sonny Matula, president of the Federation of Free Workers, noted that Duterte missed out on history when he junked the workers’ draft EO.

Matula added that Duterte just abandoned the EO “after a year of preparation and three dialogues.”

He maintained that the workers just wanted a “policy shift from the current practice of tapping manpower agencies in contracting out jobs to a policy of hiring of regular employees by the principal employer as the norm in employment relations.”

Rep. Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna said yesterday the government has no moral authority to stop the notorious endo (end of contract) practice of many companies because it is the biggest endo employer in the country.

He said an inventory of government personnel as of July 1, 2016 showed that there were 721,282 contractual and casual employees out of the workforce of 2,301,191.

“This figure was more than twice the 282,586 contractual workers in the public sector in 2008,” he said.

He added that the top agencies with endo workers in 2016 were the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Transportation.

He stressed that agencies hire contractual personnel even for critical jobs such as those in public health.  – With Jess Diaz