TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines- President Rodrigo Duterte is set to sign a new executive order on the prohibition of contractualizations based on a bill the lower House recently passed.
In a press briefing in Cagayan on Sunday, February 4, labor Secretary Silvestre “Bebot” Bello III said the President will “hopefully” sign the new order on Wednesday, February 7, in his meeting with labor groups.
The proposed executive order, Bello said, is just a “mirror” of the House Bill 6908 or the Security of Tenure Bill.
The House of Representatives already approved on third reading the bill, which seeks to clarify and explain certain provisions of the Labor Code Law.
“Actually, ‘yung bill ni Congressman Randy Ting ay parang salamin nung proposed executive order which, hopefully, will be signed by the President on February 7, on occasion of his meeting with the labor group, kung mapipirmahan ‘yung executive order na ‘yun, parang prelude na lang ‘yun doon sa bill ni Congressman Ting, magkamukha,” Bello said, referring to House committee chair on labor and employment and Cagayan representative Ting.
(Actually, the bill of Congressman Randy Ting is like the mirror of the proposed executive order which, hopefully, will be signed by the President on February 7, on occasion of his meeting with the labor group. The executive order, if signed, will already by a prelude to Congressman’s Ting’s bill. They are similar.)
This move is a precedent that the HB 6908 will no longer have problems in case it passed through the bicameral Congress, the labor secretary added.
Bello said the only difference the bill and the proposed executive order is the non-inclusion of the penalty clause.
He, however, welcomed the bill’s penalty clause and suggested that it should be given to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for capacity building programs.
Bello also clarified that the bill could not be labeled as an amendment to the Labor Code, but more “appropriately” be called as an “explanatory law.”
Passage in Labor Day
Meanwhile, Ting, one of the principal authors of the HB 6908, hopes that the Senate will just adopt the House’s version of the bill.
In an interview, the Cagayan lawmaker said the Security of Tenure Bill is targeted to be signed into law as the world celebrates Labor Day on May 1.
Ting said the proposed law will “drastically” change the interpretation of the “labor only” contracting, prohibiting the practice of contracting out of the same work contracted out by an employer.
In the proposed law, there is ‘labor-only’ contracting when a person supplying workers to an employer lacks enough capital or investment in the form of tools, equipment, machinery, work premises, or has no control over the workers’ duties, or the workers hired are performing activities which are directly related to the principal business of the employer.
The bill, according to Ting, will also seek to address issues of the ‘555 employment scheme’, or the practice of terminating the employees on the 5th month to avoid regularization.
He said employees, including those who are under probation, who had already worked for the company for one month would be entitled to a half-month pay as separation pay if terminated without “just cause.”
This move will protect the rights of the employees to be treated as regular employees for the duration of the of the engagement or project, he said.
“And the idea kasi dito during the recruitment kasi, may hiring requirements, eh may mga qualifications na hinihingi. So konti lang naman na siguro ‘yung babagsak na diyan, dahil kung hindi, ibig sabihin, pangit ‘yung hiring o recruitment policies, or recruitment method mo,” he added.
(The idea behind this is during the requirement, there are already hiring requirements and qualifications. So this would mean that only a few will already fail the recruitment process because if otherwise, this would mean you have bad hiring and recruitment policies and methods.) Northernforum.net
