MANILA, Philippines — A bill seeking to extend the probationary period of new hires to up two years is a “mindless” and “heartless” proposal meant to “hide the real issue,” Senator Leila de Lima said Tuesday.

In a dispatch from Camp Crame, De Lima said the proposal “is not a solution at all to the long-time woes of Filipino workers.”

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“This is a mindless and heartless proposal, and at the core, anti-workers. Worse, it is antithetical to the long-overdue anti-ENDO or security of tenure bill…It is a fog in which to hide the real issue,” the detained senator said.

“This ominous fog for a proposal will not only enshroud the actual issue—the abusive ENDO (end of contract) practices—but will also expose our workers to labor malpractice and put them in an employment situation where the attendant abuse is extended to two years, where predatory employers are served even more, and where the precipice and pitfalls are around to deliver our workers to the rocky bottom,” she added.

House Bill No. 4802, filed by Probinsyano Ako party-list member Rep. Jose Singson Jr. seeks to extend probationary employment from six months to two years.

De Lima said this would be “worse” than the so-called “5-5-5” endo, or the termination of employees after five months of work so that companies would not have to make them regular workers entitled to benefits mandated by law.

“Here, employers can exploit workers’ labor for close to 2 years before cheating them of regularization and depriving them of their lawful benefits,” she said.

“If workers had been made to fall short in finishing their probationary period when it was shorter, how much easier would it be for unscrupulous employers to apply the same trick when the period is longer?” she added. /kga

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