The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is now conducting a comprehensive review of subcontracting practices among companies, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.
Bello said the DOLE’s move is in compliance with the directive of President Duterte on the protection of contractual workers’ rights.
Bello said DOLE’s Bureau of Working Conditions was also instructed to prepare a profile of contractors and subcontractors based on the results or findings of laborlaws compliance officers.
“This will enable us to come up with a reliable and credible background of contracting and subcontracting in the country,” he added.
The regional directors were ordered to submit a situationer on the enforcement of labor laws and social legislation and their recommendations to address the causes of the problems.
They were also required to submit a profile of contracting and subcontracting arrangements in their respective jurisdictions.
“I have also tasked the Bureau of Labor Relations and the Legal Service to prepare an inventory of all laws, rules and regulations, issuances and jurisprudence, including pending bills on contracting and subcontracting, and come up with recommended solutions or causes of action to remedy violation identified,” Bello said.
The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) said it is assisting the DOLE in the endeavor by holding consultations among members on subcontracting and the other forms of “non-standard employment relationship.” “Subcontracting has been the subject of debate and litigation since the enactment ofthe Labor Code in 1974.
The source of the controversy is Article 106 of the law, which allows subcontracting but gives the DOLE secretary the power to “regulate, restrictor prohibit the contracting out of labor to protect the rights of the workers under this Code.”
The same article distinguishes between job contracting and labor-only contracting to determine who among the parties involved shall be considered the employer,” Ecop said.
“In an era where outsourcing is a world-wide trend, employers want more flexibility in the hiring of temporary workers to be labor-cost efficient.
Labor groups, on the other hand, decry the creeping casualization of the labor force, which deprives workers of security of tenure, benefits, and unionization,” Ecop added.
Department orders (DO) regulating contracting out of labor have undergone several amendments the latest one of which is DO 18-A. Jurisprudence, instead of clarifying the issue adds more controversy on the matter, Ecop said.
RIZA LOZADA