Members of Gabriela, a national alliance of women, urged President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday to end the end-of-contract, or endo, scheme before he delivers his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 24. In a forum held in Quezon City, the group evaluated the Duterte administration’s performance after a year, focusing on its efforts to improve the state of the labor sector. Elizabeth Maynigo, a home-based pieceworker, discussed the wholescale, or “pakyawan,” scheme, under which groups of subcontractors would ask unemployed residents of urban poor neighborhoods to take on assembly jobs for small rates. Meanwhile, Avic Gerodias, Kilusan ng Manggagawang Kababaihan spokesperson, said in a statement that women workers demanded that Duterte fulfill his “often-repeated calls” to abolish job contractualization to allow temporary workers to be regularized. “One year of waiting is too long, and the oligarchs who profit from ‘endo’ jobs are still allowed to siphon off billions of dollars in profit abroad,” Gerodias said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer July 15, 2017 10:52 UTC