Win-win proposal to end ‘endo’ practice laid out

A “win-win” strategy to end the “end-of-contract”, or “endo”, practice among big local firms has been proposed by an inter-agency body and accepted by President Duterte.

There will be two setups under the proposal: One is a company directly hires the workers. The other is, because of the seasonal nature of some jobs, a company outsources its needs to service providers, which will then hire the workers as “regulars,” meaning, they will receive leave credits, 13th-month pay, as well as retirement, social security and health insurance plans, among other benefits.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez presented the proposal during a consultation forum on Sept. 15, attended by government officials and labor and trade and business leaders, as well as selected legislators. The Trade secretary said the President has approved the scheme, where before he only wanted the direct-hiring setup.“The President is open to this new system as long as we ensure that the rights of workers are protected and that the service providers will pay the workers correctly,” Lopez said.

The premise of the alternative structure, Lopez said, is that the workers benefits are assured and protected. “We also have to balance this with the need to have a business-friendly policy environment that will generate jobs and attract investments. In other words, the structure should be in favor for both business and labor. What is critical now is the compliance of service providers in giving full benefits to the workers,” Lopez said.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III also welcomed the proposal.

Earlier, The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) banned contractors and subcontractors from joining job fairs and suspended the registration of companies engaged in subcontracting.

DOLE figures show there are currently 5,150 registered contractors and subcontractors deploying more than 416,000 workers to not less than 26,000 principals.

Bello said adopting the “win-win” solution aims to totally abolish “endo” by 2017. He said illegitimate contractualization and “endo” were practices aimed at circumventing workers’ rights to security of tenure, self-organization and collective bargaining, labor standards, and other basic workers’ rights.

Meanwhile, Jose Sio, SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) executive VP and CFO of the Sy-led family conglomerate, said SM has always followed law and regulations, and was willing to continue to do so, but that it needed to clarify some legal matters surrounding “endo.”