TUCP eases tough stance on contractual labor
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Posted on July 18, 2016
A MAJOR labor union called for clarification from the government on which jobs it considers suitable for contractualized work arrangements, marking a shift in its total opposition to jobs that do not offer a pathway to permanent employment.
Alan A. Tanjusay, spokesperson of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP)-Nagkaisa faction, said in a phone interview yesterday that the union now recognizes that contractual work -- commonly known as “endo,” is now appropriate in some cases.
“Our old position was absolutely no to contractualization,” he said in a separate phone interview yesterday, speaking in Filipino. “But then again we realized that there are jobs that you can’t regularize and that need to be contractual.”
He called on the government to provide a specific list of jobs where contractualization is acceptable.
“It’s not clear. The Labor Code is too general. The department order issued by the Department of Labor and Employment is not clear on what falls under project-based jobs, and contractual jobs,” he said in a separate phone interview last Thursday.
The Labor department issued in 2011 Department Order 18-A, which outlined the regulations that cover contracting and subcontracting arrangements, as well as a prohibition on labor-only contracting, in which workers perform activities necessary for business operations, without benefits.
Meanwhile, Article 280 of the Labor Code, which covers regular and casual employment, said that employees performing necessary business operations should have a pathway to becoming regular employees, with the exception of seasonal and project-based labor.
When asked for the organization’s position opinion on which industries may properly use contractual employees, Mr. Tanjusay said that the group is still studying the matter. He added that employers should also have a say.
“It would be good if the employers also had input on which industries should fall under contractualization. It should come from them since labor groups would just be validating their recommendations.”
The TUCP coalition encompasses 49 federations and worker organizations. Its reservations about contractual work arrangements are in line with those of the government, which promised to end the practice by 2017, with exceptions.