On Duterte certifying End Endo Bill as urgent: All form, no substance, says labor group

PRESS RELEASE

01 October 2018

On Duterte certifying End Endo Bill as urgent 

All form, no substance, says labor group

As Senate Bill 1826, also known as the “End Endo Act of 2017” getting the Palace approval last September 21 as it was certified as urgent to be passed by the Upper House, socialist group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) was “not quick to applaud Duterte for his latest trickery”.

In a statement sent to the media the group said that, “While it may appear that Malacanang is rushing the Senate to end the scourge of contractualization with his certification to SB1826 as an urgent bill however, SB1826 did not remove the legal basis of this patently anti-worker scheme for cheap and docile labor. It continues to allow trilateral work arrangements that contracts out of ‘usually necessary or desirable’ work in the business of principal employers”.

BMP laments that Duterte did not even bother to study the salient features of this bill. The group fears that his only intent was to dispel doubts on the populist image of his regime, especially after its satisfaction ratings fell due to his administration’s helplessness against runaway inflation.

“The president’s certification is all form but without substance, he is desperately conjuring the illusion that he could deliver on his campaign promises, especially with his much ado about nothing ‘change is coming’ rhetorical stunt has crumbled,” BMP president, Luke Espiritu clarified.

“Duterte may be successful over the short-term, with some labor groups wrongly congratulating him for this bogus policy change regarding contractual employment. But the bitter truth will soon be revealed to the millions of contractual workers who would find that their working conditions remain precarious, unsafe, lowly paid, and unstable – even with the eventual passage of SB1826,” he warned.

The BMP is calling on Senate Labor committee head Senator Joel Villanueva to quickly address the loopholes of SB1826 before it is passed in the Upper House and transmitted to the Bicameral Committee. “There is still time for the senators to rectify,” they said.

“The workers will not accept any compromise of their rights. SB1826 like its counterpart in the House of Representatives will be outrightly rejected by the workers”. Espiritu hinted that, the proponents of the watered down anti-Endo bill will be suffer immensely in next year’s national elections”.

The labor group will be setting up camp in front of the Senate this week dubbed “Endo Watch” to push for the prohibition of the contracting out of “usually necessary or desirable work, which should be performed by a regular employee, as stipulated in Article 280 of the Labor Code”. ###