Duterte ends “Endo”

This is seems like a good start toward helping the Filipino people. Endo is the process of hiring employees for 5 months and then letting them go so you don't have to pay any benefits.

Duterte ends "Endo" but labor group wants end of contractualization

Here is a good description of endo and contractualization.

Contractualization: Which meaning do we mean?

 

This is the common conception of it, but talking to small business employers, many have said its like a probationary period. After 5 months if the employee is still not learning and working hard and if you still find her hiding around the corner chatting on her cell phone then you let her go and find another before her 6 months is up.

It is possible that this is a Catch 22 - the employees don't work hard because they know they will be fired before 6 months and the bosses fire them before 6 months because they are not working hard. But the reality is that some people do get on full time.

 

You don't really expect employers to admit they are intentionally gaming the system do you? The have to rationalize/justify it so that they can continue to do it.

There are certainly abuses on both sides, but you have to ask yourself where most potential for abuse comes from. The person with the power is clearly the business owner. They have the ability to fire anyone at anytime. I would find it highly coincidently that they would wait 5 months and then do a wholesale replacement of their employees. The seems more like a strategy to me. I assume that a regular employee can still be fired, so working hard for 6 months converting to a regular employee and than taking it easy is not a very smart strategy. ENDO is clearly a strategy that could be used to reduce operating expenses. If the skills needed to do the job can be quickly learned, why not refresh your workforce every 5 months. There are certainly jobs that are project oriented and lend them shelves to temporary/contractual help, but it's not the majority of work.

Now some numbers from Philippine Statistic Authority
Number of ‘endo’ workers on the decline – PSA

Number of non-regular employees in 2016. 1,190,697

Where do they come from:
The bulk or 687,206 of non-regular workers last year were from the service sector particularly in the administrative and support services; wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles.
The industry sector came in second with 447,320 non-regular workers, while the agriculture sector had the least number with only 56,170

The number of regular workers in 2016: 2,538,081

About 30% of workers are non-regular workers and have been working for less than 6 months. Suspicious?

DOLE reported its campaign has already benefited 116,000 contractual workers.

Out of the beneficiaries, 67,927 have already been regularized by their employers, while the remaining 48,847 are set be regularized in the coming months.

Out of 1,190,697 workers 116,000 were converted to regular workers, so only 10% or the non-regular workers are being converted. Suspicious?

Another good link on how ENDO affects Filipinos.
‘Endo’ in the Philippines

As a side note, it's pretty depressing to see there are only about 3.7M out of a population of over 100M people that are classified as regular and non-regular workers.

 

Many Companies do not Directly employ people but use Agencies, these can be the main culprits of the 6 month thing. They just send x workers who may do well in the workplace but upset someone in the Agency hierarchy and out you go, This happened to a nephew of my Wifes. he went to the Company and told them. They Took him on Direct.

 

I see things are black and white to you.

I find that it would reduce operating expenses even more to hire OJTs that are paid nothing. I also believe it would reduce operating expenses to have 5 great employees rather than 10 lazy @ss people on 6 month contracts.

But you are correct. It is clearly a strategy. Having seen so many filipino businesses without a strategy of any kind I don't find it a bad thing when someone actually has one.

 

Glad to hear it worked out for your nephew.

Are you saying the agencies are letting people go before 6 months? Is it possible that this could be part of the strategy to make the behavior tougher to track? Could the agencies exist to perpetuate the practice? Hey mister businessman, use my temp agency and I'll let the person go after 5 months, so it insulates you from scrutiny. There is nothing wrong with an Agency and I'm sure what you suggest happens, but the numbers are so high it suggests there is more at play here. The number of workers competing for the number of jobs leads to a pretty competitive hiring process, so I would think a lot of the workers are qualified and competent. As an example on competition. There may be a couple of screw ups that get into Stanford University, but they are few and far between.

Am I'm putting to much faith in the Filipino workers?

 

Agencies are a good thing for most companies in the main but they need to be monitored as well
As to Faith in a Filipino worker many don't see the end result as they are canned and never given time to show their true worth. Ask yourself, can anyone really be at ease with a new job in a 6 month period? Should we be asking do we have faith in a Filipino Employer Direct or Agency?

 

I wouldn't say black and white, but the propensity for abuse is more on the business owner side than the employee side. Of course, 5 great employees are better than 10 lazy, no argument there. I'm clearly not saying you should have 10 lazy employees. It seems that your are of the opinion that all business owners are honorable and all workers are lazy. Does this contract you mention prevent the employer from firing an employee for cause?

 

If it takes someone more than 6 months to show their true worth, than that means that they could actually be costing the business money. In other words, they let go of the person who is just becoming productive to hire some that they need to train (invest in). In my company, they say it takes a year for a Sales Rep to start making the company money. When you say that, it tells me that there is a greater financial benefit to getting a new employee that needs to be trained then keeping one around that is almost trained for longer than 6 months. I'm going to go out on limb and suggest that most of these non-regular jobs probably don't require extensive training, but that doesn't really change the hypothesis. A business generally exists to make money for the owner/shareholders (and the CEO ) in my experience. I'm not characterizing that behavior as right or wrong because it can be either. Let's say a company maximizes it's income by burying poisonous chemicals instead of disposing of them properly, that's bad. If they do it by pressuring suppliers to reduce costs, more power to them.

To answer your last question about agencies. I would say an Agency that hires bad employees won't stay in business very long. It's sort of self policing. Would you use an Agency a second time if it sent you a bunch of bad contractors?

 

I can only go by what I see happening. That is how I formulate my opinions. I cannot say what is right and wrong. I can say that I see people on 6 month contracts hiding away from work (in retail environments where I am likely to see such people) and I can say that I see people on full time employment who are great at customer service and its nice to know they will be working there when I go back next time. On rare occasions I have seen great employees let go after 6 months and the replacements are horrible. Funny thing, to me, is that these are often foreigner run businesses.

So that is what I am basing my responses and opinions on and it is clearly anecdotal. But it is my opinion and I'm sticking to it.