It’s 5-month contracts Duterte is against, explains Dominguez

DAVAO CITY—President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is against the practice of contractualization but would allow other contract-based jobs to continue under his administration, incoming Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez clarified on Tuesday.

“When the president-elect was talking about an end to contractualization [during the campaign], he was talking about ‘endo’ [where] five months and you’re out,” Dominguez said during a press conference on the sidelines of the “Sulong Pilipinas: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran” consultative meeting between businessmen and Duterte’s economic managers last Monday.

Some companies routinely end contracts after five months to avoid having to make their workers permanent and therefore entitled to more labor and security benefits.

The incoming finance chief said it was this practice of “endo” that  Duterte was strongly against.

“Because if you’re in an ‘endo’ contract, how can you plan to pay for the tuition of your kids six months from now? How can you plan your life? Besides, you don’t improve your skills. Say you went to Tesda [Technical Education and Skills Development Authority] and you were trained to be a chef or cook and then after five months you’re out, then they’ll put you to be a janitor—your skills never develop. That’s why that kind of contract is what our president-elect is against,” Dominguez said.

As for contracts that are part of time-bound business operations, the Duterte administration would not be against them, Dominguez said.

“There are jobs that really lend themselves to contracts. For instance, a TV show has a run of at least 13 weeks [one season] so that’s the contract. It’s OK to sign up with the TV show contract. That kind of contract is OK because you cannot expect the employer to hire you for more than 13 weeks because the show may no longer be around after 13 weeks,” he said.

Seasonal jobs during the Christmas holidays as well as harvest seasons were also acceptable, Dominguez said.

“[In the case of] malls, sales go up at Christmas so you have to hire contractual workers. But ‘endo’ is not acceptable when you work six months then they kick you out so that you don’t become permanent,” he said.

Incoming Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced that his marching orders were to look into contractualization or the practice of “endo” during the first months of the new administration.

He said this would  include the plight of workers in malls, restaurants and other  establishments in the service sector.

He said there was also a proposal to rename the Department of Labor and Employment to the Department of Labor and Management.  Bello said the change is aimed at accommodating all stakeholders in the labor industry. With a report from Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao