Labor Sec. Bello,pinirmahan na ang dept. order no.174 laban sa kontrakwalisasyon pic.twitter.com/32OQpAufTY — Dennis Cabral Datu (@Dennis_Datu) March 16, 2017

MANILA - The Department of Labor and Employment released on Thursday new rules that it hoped would end illegal labor contractualization.

Employers and labor groups have wrangled for months over the guidelines, which aims to help President Rodrigo Duterte deliver on his campaign promise to stop "endo," wherein employment contracts are deliberately terminated before the sixth month to avoid paying benefits that are due to regular workers.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello acknowledged the "impasse" and said he was compelled to use his powers under law to "put closure to this issue."

Bello said he instructed his undersecretaries, Joel Maglunsod and Bernard Olalia to review its enforcement.

The department said the following practices are prohibited:

- Labor-only contracting

- Farming out work to a "cabo"

- Contracting out of job or work through an in-house agency

- Contracting out of job or work through an in-house cooperative that merely supplies workers to its principal

- Contracting out of a job or work because of a strike or lockout, whether actual or imminent

- Contracting out of a job or work being performed by union members and such will interfere or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights to self-organization

- Requiring the contractor's or subcontractors' employees to perform functions which are currently being performed by the regular employees of the principal

- Requiring the contractor's or sub-contractor's employees to sign, as a precondition to employment or continued employment, an antedated resignation letter, a blank payroll, a waiver of labor standards, including minimum wages and social or welfare benefits, or a quit claim releasing the principal or contractor from liability as to payment of future claims, or require the employee to be a member of a cooperative

- Repeated hiring by the contractor or subcontractor of employees under an employment contract of short duration

- Requiring employees under a contracting/subcontracting arrangement to sign a contract fixing the period of employment to a term shorter than the term of the service agreement, unless the contract is divisible into phases for which substantially different skills are required and this is made known to the employee at the time of the engagement

- Such other practices, schemes or employment arrangements designed to circumvent the right of workers to security of tenure

-- reports from Dennis Datu, ABS-CBN News