Press Release
December 4, 2017

Villanueva applauds NAIA's move to end 'endo'; urges other gov't agencies to follow suit

Senator Joel Villanueva on Sunday applauded the recent move of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to end the practice of 'endo' by giving longer contracts to its employees, and urged other government agencies to follow suit.

On Saturday, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), the government agency responsible for the management of NAIA, gave its 1,057 building attendants three-year contracts that will entitle them to a 13th month pay, health benefits, social insurance, among others.The contracts are renewable every three years.

"We commend the NAIA administration for establishing arrangements to increase the tenure and benefits of its short-term workers. We know that the three-year arrangement is far from perfect, but the agency's move is reflective of their desire to gradually remove the practice of short-term endo," said Villanueva, chairperson of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.

Before, NAIA's building attendants used to be employed under a "job order" contract. These employees do not have security of tenure which means that they may be terminated anytime.

Among their main duties are cleaning floors, concourses, and some 250 toilets at the NAIA complex; maintaining gardens, parking spaces, and offices; and running interoffice errands.

Many of them have been serving at the airport for 10 to 15 years as short-term contractual workers under different service contractors.

Villanueva, on his part, welcomed the said development yet emphasized the need for legislating laws that will ensure workers' security of tenure and scrap the 'endo' scheme.

At the start of his term as a senator, Villanueva filed Senate Bill No. 1116 or the "End of Endo or Contractualization Act of 2016" which seeks to provide security of tenure for workers, protect workers' welfare by ensuring regularity of their salary and benefits, and ensure the exercise of workers' right to organize.

"I hope that this development in NAIA will encourage other agencies to follow suit in phasing out the detestable practice and granting regularization to its contractual employees," Villanueva said.

"We have to put safeguards against blurring of employer-employee relationship and the circumvention of the law on security of tenure. A law is urgently needed that will protect and regularize workers and will ensure their entitlement to social benefits and protection," the senator further stressed

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