PIMENTEL WANTS SUBCONTRACTED WORKERS TO GET FULL BENEFITS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) is pushing for a legislation that would free workers from exploitative practices by subcontractors or so-called indirect employers.

Pimentel filed Senate Bill 1159 mandating indirect employers to pay to employees hired through job contracts all benefits that they are entitled under labor laws.

Workers hired by agencies through job-contracting scheme perform duties no different from regular or directly-hired workers. And yet Pimentel said, they are the most underpaid, neglected and oppressed among the country's labor force.

"Many of them toil endlessly for years in a company they cannot even call their employer. Their hard work is compensated with a chopped wage, already pre-deducted by their hiring agencies. Many of them do not get their legally mandated benefits. Worse, their hopes of getting retirement pay, after a lifetime of hard work, almost turn into illusions," he said.

He said the unjust treatment is a "grave scandal that must be stopped."

The Pimentel proposal will amend Article 106 of Presidential Decree 442, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines.

If the employees cannot get their benefits from their agencies, Pimentel said they can turn to their company for relief.

Under the bill, if the workers of the contractor or subcontractor have rendered at least one year of service to the same employer, whether or not such employment is continuous, such employer shall also be jointly and severally be liable with the contractor or subcontractor for the payment of their benefits. The benefits include, but are not limited to, separation or retirement pay.

However, the bill states that the liability of the indirect employer shall be limited only to the period that such employee rendered services to the said indirect employer.

Under the Labor Code, whenever an employer enters into a contract with another person for the performance of the former's work, the employees of the contractor and of the latter's subcontractor, if any, shall be paid in accordance with the provisions of the Code.