Employers practicing endo issued dire warning

Contract Terminated

President Rodrigo Duterte recently issued a dire warning to employers still practicing “end-of-contract” or endo hiring.

“Endo” refers colloquially to contractualization, an illegal hiring scheme where employees are hired for less than six months, to go around the law which mandates their regularization after six months.  The scheme effectively denies workers the opportunity for regular employment.

The President issued the warning in a speech before members of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting in Malacanang this week.

He said: “You choose: Stop contractualization or I kill you.”

He added:  “I will call you here. I’ll slap you one by one. I’m used to that. I really kick people. Believe me. Even policemen in Davao. Nobody was exempted.”

Towards the end of his speech, he said however,  that his threat was just “hyperbole,” but reiterated his administration’s commitment to fight endo.

The President said he had directed Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello to check the records of businesses to find out who are engaged in the illegal practice.

When interviewed Belo said there is a need to carefully study the proposal of some labor groups to criminalize the hiring of contractual workers.

“We have to study that very, very carefully because it might be too harsh to criminalize contractualization,” said Bello.

“To me, initially, off hand, my position would be just the administrative penalty. Like closure and cancellation of permit,” he said.

Photo credits:  //insideretail.ph/bill-seeks-to-end-contractualization/