Contract workers regularized

LEGAZPI CITY --- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Bicol noted an increase in the number of erstwhile contractual workers finally regularized by their private employers in response to the government’s call to end contractualization. DOLE Regional Director Rovelinda A. Dela Rosa said “(t)he number of regularized workers continues to rise here in Bicol and [it is] expected [that] there will be more by the end of the year.” The office has recorded additional 37 contract workers who were absorbed by two local companies in this city and in Naga City. She said the move of the private firms to regularize their employees is a positive response to the call of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to put a stop to contractualization or “ENDO” (end-of-contract). “We here in DOLE will not stop nor slow down but has in fact geared-up the program,” the DOLE official said. “This is in addition to our current tally of 3,293 workers in Bicol that have already been regularized,”Dela Rosa added. “After DOLE Bicol publicly announced the first three companies which voluntarily absorbed their employees after a regional consultation with DOLE, the number of local companies voluntarily absorbing their contract employees “have at least doubled,” she added. Fourteen of the 37 voluntarily regularized workers came from a hotel in Naga City while 23 came from a security agency in Legazpi City. The workers from the hotel have been employed since 2013 under an agency and it is only now that they have been absorbed and were given a permanent status by the principal with appointment papers retroactive from the time of their deployment while the security guards have been serving for more than a year and were eventually confirmed of their appointment after DOLE Bicol’s ENDO Program, Dela Rosa added. In 2017, based on DOLE records, 402 workers were absorbed and regularized voluntarily by their principals while 2,240 were regularized thru the issuance of compliance orders, while last year 366 were voluntary regularized during Mandatory Conference and 285 more during plant level assessment. ‘We are projecting that more will be regularized at least before the end of this year. Rest assured that we will be vigilant in this ENDO campaign”, the director said.