WITH the recent passage of the Senate Bill 1826, also known as the "Security of Tenure and End of Endo Act of 2018," in the upper chamber, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said this may burden small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
"This will add more cost to SMEs because instead of hiring seasonal workers during peak seasons of the business, they will need to hire them permanently even if after the project or the season, the workforce is not needed anymore," PCCI president Alegria Limjoc said Friday, May 24, in a phone interview.
She said more SMEs are actually on the verge of growing now but with the security of tenure, this might cause these business to cease to operate.
Limjoc said they did express their appeal on the bill and tried to explain its effect in the employment sector.
"Actually, we did our appeal but of course, they listen more to the populate than to us but it will surely affect employment, so we will still do our best and we will see kung paano ito sa IRR (implementing rules and regulations)," she said.
Limjoc said they might propose in the IRR for service providers to hire these workers instead and SMEs could just outsource workforce during peak seasons in their business.
Meanwhile, the labor group in Davao City said they will continue to support the recently passed bill, until signed in the executive level.
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) secretary general Carlo Ulalo told SunStar Davao that the passage of the bill in the upper chamber was the first step into addressing the long-term problem on contractualization in the country.
“We, however, still need the unity of all labor group organizations to further strengthen the labor activities such as rallies and protests to the DOLE, in the legislative and to President Rodrigo Duterte himself,” Ulalo said in vernacular.
“This is to further push the said bill to be approved in the bicameral and finally be signed in the executive so that the capitalists will have no choice but to implement the law,” he added.