When it comes to labor concerns, the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has said that it wants to put a stop to contractualization or “endo” — a practice of hiring people for less than six months so companies won’t need to legally turn them into regular employees with benefits.
“Endo” is a shortened term for “end of contract.”
Last July, Department of Labor and Employment chief Silvestre H. Bello III said that they plan to reduce the “endo” practice by 50% by the end of 2016.
READ: DOLE Secretary: We will reduce ‘endo’ by 50% this year
The SM Group, founded by tycoon Henry Sy who has been named the richest person in the Philippines, has gotten criticism for being one of the major “endo” hirers.
“There are many young people that are employed by SM who come to us saying that they are contractual workers,” Catholic priest Rudy Abao, a convenor of the Church-Workers Solidarity, told The Philippine Star.
SM has issued a statement on the matter, released on Wed, Sep 7, where it maintained that it “strictly adheres to labor laws and regulations in conducting its business” and “strongly denied it has only 355 regular employees out of its more than 90,000 employees.
“The fact is the 373 is merely the number of employees of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the holding company. Group-wide employee headcount as of 2015 is 94,516, employed in various companies under the SM Group which include companies engaged in banking, financing, property, retail, malls, hotel, resorts and entertainment.
“Our store operations are manned by regular employees. All of our employees are compensated at or paid above government mandated salaries and benefits,” it said.
