Cebu firms for ending endo

• Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/cebu-firms-for-ending-endo/
• Wednesday, October 5, 2016

By Mars W. Mosqueda Jr.

Cebu City — A number of companies in Cebu and from the rest of Central Visayas have responded to the call of the government against “end of contract” (endo) practices, and have regularized at least 600 workers since the campaign was launched.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Central Visayas said the stop-endo drive has received positive feedback from employers in the region, although the 600 regularized workers are still few compared to the number of contractual workers in Region 7.

DOLE Regional Director Exequiel Sarcauga said most of the regularized employees work in malls, agencies, and export processing zones.

The department has launched an orientation and information drive to let the employers in the region know that they have the responsibility to regularize their workers.

DOLE 7 is targeting to have 100 percent regularization of contractual workers before the end of December 2017.

Sarcauga said at least half of the contractual workers in the region should become regular workers before the end of this year.

“The directives of President Duterte necessitated us to transform and change the way we do things. With his marching orders on ending endo, there is a need to treat workers as partners and respect their rights at work all the time,” Sarcauga said.

He enumerated three options for workers who could be terminated with the implementation of endo:

Refer them to other companies for employment;

Provide them livelihood assistance;

Re-train them in coordination with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.