KILUSANG Mayo Uno (KMU) spokesperson Carlo Olalo said they are not satisfied with the Executive Order that was signed by President Duterte on the end of contractualization.
"Ang executive order na iyang gipirmahan dili amoang version, dili version sa labor organization, gani ang executive order na iyang gipirmahan is version ng Economic Confederation of the Philippines na grupo sa employer na mismo sugyot sa kapitalista and of the Labor secretary (The executive order signed by the Presient is not the version of the labor organization, the EO he signed is the Economic Confederation of the Philippines, a group of employers and capitalists, and also of the labor secretary version)," Olalo said on the sidelines of the KMU-led Labor Day Protest at Freedom Park, Roxas Avenue, Davao City, yesterday.
Olalo said the Section 2 of the EO, which was supposed to end the contractualization, does not actually stop it since it only stated that the employer will be penalized if it is proven that the company has illegally hired a laborer for contractual work.
"If you say illegal there is also legal, now the signing of the executive order is a deception of labor groups and all the workers of the whole country. The labor group clearly said it wants to junk all forms of contractualization," he said.
Olalo said the version of President Duterte allows job-only contracting, because he said that if the worker is necessary and desirable, he will be regularized by the principal employer but if it is proven that he is not necessary and undesirable, the person can be placed under contract.
"This is not what we want; we want to junk all forms of contractualization in the Philippines," he said.
Olalo said they have read the highlights of the EO.
In the morning, a group of workers, under Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisang Pilipinong Manggagawa and union members of schools and companies, also conducted a separate rally in the morning at Freedom Park near the Veterans Memorial Park.
Jun Pacanot from Partido ng Manggagawa said they want to ask for the President to keep his promise to end contractualization.
“Admit it, we voted for President Rodrigo Duterte in the last elections, and we believed him because of his bravery to declare that once he will sit in Malacañang, he will stop contractualization,” he said.
Pacanot said this promise gave hope to the workers and inspired them more in pursuing their plea.
He added that they will continue pursuing their plea after the President announced that he will just certify as urgent the Security of Tenure Bill.
Pacanot said the President is wrong if he thinks that he can fool the workers because his promise has opened the mind of the workers that ending contractualization is possible.
He added that the president also promised to end the regional minimum wage and create a national minimum wage, which they do not see coming due to the his failure to end contractualization.
He said they still want to continue to strengthen their organization to inspire unorganized workers.
“We will not hesitate to ask the president of his promise because if he continues to fail what he promised, this will be the start of his downfall, and we will continue our struggle to fight on what is right for us,” he said.
Pacanot was among yesterday’s speaker during the May 1, 2018, Labor Day rally at the Freedom Park, fronting Veterans Memorial.
Less than 2,000 workers attended in the rally by labor union groups including, Holy Cross of Davao College Faculty Union, Samacoke, Mincor Independent Workers Union, Courage Labor Union Water District, Holcim Davao Supervisory Independent Union, Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Mangaggawa, Sanlakas, Freedom of Debt Coalition, and Kilusang Mayo Uno.