The Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources, chaired by Senator Joel Villanueva, has conducted a hearing on labour contractualization. The hearing was held in Senate on Tuesday, 27 September 2016.

Ms Diane Lynn Respall, Senior Programme Officer a.i. of the ILO Country Office for the Philippines was among the resource speakers. She cited ILO’s support to the Philippine government, employers’ and workers’ organizations to create an enabling environment through social dialogue, which can help address gaps and find solutions to the issue of labour contractualization that are compatible to decent work.

The Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resource discussed the following pending bills:

• Senate Bill 117 on Prohibiting Labor-Only Contracting;
• Senate Bill No. 174 on End Endo Act;
• Senate Bill No. 217 on the Security of Tenure of Workers in the Private Sector;
• Senate Bill No. 302 on Security of Tenure Act of 2016;
• Senate Bill No. 329 on Strengthening the Security of Tenure of Workers in the Private Sector;
• Senate Bill No. 1061 on Eradicatiing Abusive Contractualization Practices;
• Senate Bill No. 1116 on End of Endo or Contractuatlization Act of 2016; and
• Senate Resolution No. 1 on Practice of Contractualization.

According to the ILO, non-standard forms of employment, which include temporary work or contractual arrangement remains a pressing issue worldwide. Over the past decade, there has been an increasing trend in developed and developing countries of workers hired under contractual arrangements, which limits the opportunity to access social security benefits and to exercise rights at work. Contractual workers often face risks of poor working conditions, low wages, few benefits, lack of social protection and collective representation by unions, and little to no job security.

Secretary Silvestre Bello III of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has recently directed all Regional Offices to launch a massive information campaign against illegitimate contractualization to ensure strict implementation and enforcement of workers’ right to security of tenure. The Secretary also highlighted the need to double efforts in the conduct of consultations and dialogues with workers and employers, including priority industries, where illegitimate contractualization is most prevalent.

The Philippine government has recognized the role of labour inspection to address contractualization. The ILO is implementing a project on Building the Capacity of the Philippine Labour Inspectorate. The project, with the support of the United States Department of Labor, aims to strengthen the capacity of DOLE to enforce a Labour Law Compliance System (LLCS) that is consistent with relevant international standards, as well as to strengthen capacities of workers and employers to play a more active role in the implementation.

The ILO, through the project has supported a series of regional trainings held on 9 to 16 August 2016 for 290 core labour inspectors, conciliators and mediators and national and regional labour arbiters involved in assessing and handling of cases of illegitimate forms of contractualization.

Those trained by the project are being mobilized in assessing and handling possible cases arising from assessments of 16,000 business establishments. These business establishments employ about 5,150 contractors and subcontractors, covering 416,000 workers.

The DOLE’s Labor Laws Compliance System-Management Information System (LLCS MIS), developed with ILO support, has also been critical for the government to identify priority establishments engaged in contracting and subcontracting for inspection.