About 10,212 employees from 92 firms across Central Luzon have been voluntarily regularized by their respective employers.
The employees were regularized after less than six months of consultations and assessments by the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Luzon (DOLE 3).
DOLE Regional Director Atty. Ana Dione said their effort is part of their national agency’s priority commitments to President Rodrigo Duterte to reduce illegal forms of contractualization, ‘endo,’ labor-only contracting, and other similar work arrangements by 50 percent this year and abolishing it entirely by next year.
DOLE 3 has targeted 235 firms all over the region to undergo consultation and assessment to determine the existence of contractualization, ‘endo’, and LOC practices at their workplaces as early as August this year.
Of the total target, at least half or around 118 firms or principals subjected for the consultation and assessment had to be achieved by the end of the year.
The remaining half of the said target shall be completed within the first semester of the following year.
Dione reported to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III that the 92 complying establishments are part of 268 firms that have already undergone consultation and assessment with the DOLE this year alone.
“We likewise capacitated and dispatched our labor laws compliance officers (LLCOs), including some technical inspectors, in determining these forms of illegal work arrangements and how they could help firms voluntarily comply, not only in general labor standards (GLS) and occupational safety and health (OSH) standards, but more importantly in adopting allowable employment arrangements and thereafter regularizing workers,” Dione said.
Various leading industries operating inside and outside of the region’s freeport and economic zones were covered under the DOLE’s region wide consultations and assessments.
Those firms found to be engaging in labor-only contracting and similar forms of work arrangements were subjected to mandatory conferences and were assisted in complying with GLS and OSH standards.
Initially, at least around 2,500 workers voluntarily regularized by 20 firms after the regional/field offices held 22 consultations attended by 1,444 company representatives from 648 establishments/principals/contractors region wide.
Dione noted that all participating establishments to the consultations have undergone the usual joint-assessment with the LLCOs.
Of the 10,212 regularized workers, Dione reported to Bello, 3,939 of them were voluntarily regularized by 54 firms upon assessment visit by the LLCOs at plant-level.
The remaining 6,580 workers, on the other hand, were voluntarily regularized through conferences at the Technical Support and Services Division for Labor Relations and Labor Standards of the regional office.
It was also noted in Dione’s report that of the total workers regularized, around 956 workers in 31 companies engaging bi-lateral work arrangements, were voluntarily regularized.