By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

After President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order yesterday seeking an end to the practice of job contractualization, the General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) said, while they were pleased with the development, they were still awaiting more details.

GAWA Secretary-General Wennie Sancho called the order a “welcome development,” but said his group wants to review more details.

He said they will only formally commend the president if the conditions of the order are satisfactory with the organization.

Sancho said they want a “complete end” to contractualization.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III read portions of the order, pointing out, under Section 2 of the labor code, contracting or subcontracting is strictly prohibited “when undertaken to circumvent the worker’s rights to security of tenure, self-organization, collective bargaining, and peaceful concerted activities pursuant to the 1987 Philippine Constitution.”

Based on data from 2014 by Panorama, a magazine issued by the Manila Bulletin, of the estimated 4.4 million workers in Negros, around 1.3 million are working as contractual workers./DGB, WDJ