CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Some 22,699 workers were voluntarily regularized by 246 establishments from different parts of Central Luzon, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional office here.
DOLE Regional Director Ana Dione said the regional office’s latest scorecard in reducing illegal contracting, ‘endo,’ and labor-only contracting (LOC) covers the last few months of 2016 and the whole year of 2017.
Dione said they remained focused in carrying out marching orders under the DOLE’s commitment to President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to eliminate illegal forms of contracting, ‘endo,’ labor-only contracting, and other similar work arrangements.
Of the total workers regularized, some 12,689 workers were regularized in 2017 by some 141 establishments under the encouragement and assessment of the DOLE regional and field offices.
The remaining workers, on the other hand, were regularized by 105 firms upon the assumption of the new administration.
Dione said the regional and field offices continued to adopt various strategies in its pursuit to eliminate illegal contracting, ‘endo’ and LOC schemes.
She said DOLE had 24 labor laws compliance offices to hold assessments of establishments, principals, and contractors to determine their compliance with General Labor Standards (GLS) and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) standards, and to determine which among them violated work arrangements.
Various leading industries operating within and outside of the region’s freeport and economic zones were covered under the DOLE’s region wide assessments mandated by its Labor Laws Compliance System.
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.
Of the total regularized workers, Dione said that 16,286 were voluntarily regularized by 145 establishments which took initiative to support the government’s war on ‘endo’ schemes.
The remaining 6,413 workers, on the other hand, were regularized by 101 establishments after being issued compliance orders by the DOLE regional office.
Dione thanked those complying establishments and urged more firms to follow suit in regularizing their workers.
“We are hoping that more establishments will also realize the benefits of regularizing their workers, who are deemed necessary in their day to day operations,” she added. (Zorayda Tecson/PNA)
