Duterte vetoes anti-endo bill

President Rodrigo Duterte vetoes the Security of Tenure bill, a bill he had certified as urgent in September 2018

In another setback for workers' groups, President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the anti-endo (end of contract) or Security of Tenure bill.

This was confirmed by Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo by text message to reporters on Thursday night, July 25.

The veto is unexpected given how Duterte had certified the bill as urgent in September 2018 and asked Congress to pass it during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) that year.

He conspicuously made no mention of the bill in his SONA this year, which led labor groups to say Duterte no longer prioritizes labor rights.

Several big business organizations, including the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine, and Foundation for Economic Freedom had made a last-minute plea to Duterte to veto the bill.

They claimed the measure will impinge on freedoms of companies to make managerial decisions and would ramp up the cost of doing business which could lead to job losses.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia had his own reservations about the bill, saying it needed tweaking so it would safeguard investment as well as protect workers.

If the bill had been signed into law, it would have been illegal for a job contractor to merely supply and recruit workers to a contractee.

It would have also been illegal for workers supplied to a contractee to perform tasks or activities that are listed by the industry as directly related to the core business of the contractee.

Problematic for labor groups, too. But even some labor groups had problems with the bill submitted to Duterte for his signature.

Groups like Partido Manggagawa, Alliance of General Unions, Institutions, and Labor Associations, and Philippine Airlines Employees Association rejected the bill.

They claimed it is a watered down version of the bill the House of Representatives had adopted. The Lower House had decided to abandon this bill and adopt the Senate version instead, to expedite its progress in Congress.

They had wanted the following features in the bill:

• prohibition of fixed-term employment and multi-layered contracting
• stiffer fines and penalties, including closure of agencies found guilty of labor-only contracting

Back in May 2018, Duterte had signed an executive order on contractualization that labor groups slammed as "useless."

The President had admitted the only way to end labor-only contracting is to amend the Labor Code, which only the legislative branch can do.

With his veto of the anti-endo bill, Duterte is still to keep his campaign promise to end all forms of labor-only contractualization.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/236275-duterte-vetoes-anti-endo-bill