Congress OKs bill ending ‘endo,’ strengthening security of tenure

Granting the Labor Day request of President Rodrigo Duterte, Congress on Tuesday approved the measure seeking to strengthen the security of tenure of employees in the private sector and to put an end to contractualization.

This was after the House of Representatives adopted Senate Bill 1826 as an amendment to House Bill 6908.

The measure prohibits subcontracting out the same work contracted out by the employer.

It also seeks to limit job contracting to licensed and specialized services and classify workers into regular and probationary employees, treating project and seasonal employees as regular employees.

At the same time, if the contractor fails to pay the wages, allowances and benefits of his employees, the employer will be jointly liable with the contractor to the employees to the extent of the work performed under the contract.

Article 294, "Security of Tenure" of the Labor Code of the Philippines is also amended in order that in cases of regular employment, the employer will not terminate the services of an employee except for "just cause" or when authorized.

If illegal dismissal happens, the employee is entitled to immediate reinstatement even pending appeal and without loss of seniority rights and benefits.

Likewise, Article 295, "Regular Employment" of the Labor Code is amended defining a regular employee as one who has been hired for an indefinite period.

On May 1, Duterte urged Congress to pass bills protecting the rights of workers, particularly security of tenure and self-organization, as the country commemorates Labor Day.

“I remain optimistic that one year since I issued Executive Order No. 51, implementing existing constitutional and statutory provisions against illegal contracting, my counterparts in Congress will consider passing much needed legislative measures that will fully protect our workers’ rights, especially to security of tenure and self-organization,” he said in his Labor Day message.

The House approved its own version of the measure in January last year, but the Senate only passed theirs last Wednesday.

The Senate's version was certified as urgent by Duterte. — BM, GMA News