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UN backs end to ‘endo’
PRESIDENT Duterte may have some stinging words against the United Nations but surprisingly, he has found support in the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESCR).
UN CESCR conducted a review of the Philippines from Sept. 27 to 28 in Geneva, Switzerland. In its concluding observations, the Committee recommended three important things – put an end to the “endo” system, strengthen the monitoring of employers regarding the abusive casualization of workers, and review the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989 with a view to reinstating the national minimum wage. We all know that the President promised to end the “endo” system.
The contractualization of workers for periods of five months (so-called “endo”), which the Herrera Law of 1989 (Republic Act 6715) legitimized, is rampant across all economic sectors, increasing the number of workers under short-term contracts and with lower levels of protection. The Wage Rationalization Act of 1989, on the other hand, abolished the national minimum wage and transferred the wage fixing mandate from Congress to tripartite wage boards. The UN CESCR recommended a review of the two-tiered wage system with a view to ensuring that the floor wage is no less than the minimum wage that should ensure an adequate standard of living to workers and their families.
It also recommended that the Philippine government ensure that labor legislation is strictly applied to sweatshop workers, and that all workers enjoy safe and healthy working conditions and protected from occupational accidents, exploitation and abuse.
So-called sweatshops often have precarious working conditions. They are excluded and/or disguised from labor inspections, and their workers, mostly women, are subjected to exploitation with pay below the minimum wage, long working hours, and unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. Worse, they are exposed to occupational accidents, abuse and extra demands.
With UN’s backing, the government has gained the moral ground to end the “endo” system. It must exhaust all possible steps to implement the UN’s recommendations and protect workers’ rights and welfare.
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