By Leslie Ann Aquino
More and more workers are being regularized by their employers amid the government’s anti-endo (end of contract) campaign.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III reported that as of December 3, the number of workers that have been regularized is at 411,449 which include some 11,660 workers of the SM chain.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III (ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./Presidential Photo / MANILA BULLETIN)
“I know it is still low, percentage-wise, considering the number of contractual workers in the country,” he said in their yearend report.
The 400,000 plus figure, Bello said is "unprecedented."
"Never in history has that number been achieved,” he said.
According to Bello, 35 percent of the said number of workers were regularized as a result of the issuance of compliance order, while 65 percent were regularized due to the voluntary compliance of employers.
The SM malls in the National Capital Region also had the most number of regularized workers with 4,800; followed by those in Calabarzon with 2,865; and those in Mimaropa with 1,476.
Bello also revealed the plan of the members of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) to regularize their employees. “ECOP said all its members will regularize all their employees. We are just waiting for their timeline,” he said.
The labor chief said he offered to waive the inspection of their member companies unless there is a complaint filed against them, he said.
The Department of Labor (DOLE) has inspected close to 137,000 establishments across the country from August 2016 to June this year covering 9.4 million workers. The department is tasked to inspect more than 900,000 establishments.