Workers' Rights
Perpetual Endo — Contractualisation to Avoid Regularisation
An employer repeatedly rehires a worker on 5-month contracts to prevent regularisation as a regular employee
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9 minutes
The Situation
What They Said
“Your five-month contract is ending. We like your work so we are offering you a new contract starting next week — same terms. We just cannot regularise you right now.”
'Endo' — short for 'end of contract' — is a notorious labour practice in the Philippines in which employers repeatedly hire workers on 5-month contracts, terminate them just before the 6-month regularisation threshold, and rehire them immediately. This circumvents Article 295 of the Labor Code, which provides that any employee who has rendered at least six months of service becomes a regular employee by operation of law. The practice has been condemned by successive Philippine administrations, and DOLE Department Orders have repeatedly attempted to curb it. A worker who has been continuously performing work necessary and desirable to the employer's business for six months or more may already be a regular employee regardless of the contract label.
The Fallacy
Contract Label Overrides Actual Employment Reality Fallacy
The employer uses a series of short-term contracts to create the appearance of temporary employment when the work is in fact regular, necessary, and desirable to the business. This is a misuse of the fixed-term employment framework. Philippine courts apply a substance-over-form analysis: if the work you perform is necessary and desirable to the employer's usual business, and you have performed it for at least six months, you are a regular employee by law — regardless of how many short-term contracts you have signed. The label on the contract does not change the legal reality.
What the Law Says
Your Legal Foundation
Labor Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree No. 442)
Article 295 (formerly Art. 280) — Regular and Casual Employment — Regularisation After Six Months
“The provisions of written agreement to the contrary notwithstanding and regardless of the oral agreement of the parties, an employment shall be deemed to be regular where the employee has been engaged to perform activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer, except where the employment has been fixed for a specific project or undertaking the completion or termination of which has been determined at the time of the engagement of the employee.”
If your work — the tasks you perform every day — is necessary and desirable to your employer's regular business, and you have performed it for six months or more, you are a regular employee by operation of law. The repeated 5-month contracts cannot override this statutory threshold.
Labor Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree No. 442)
Article 294 (formerly Art. 279) — Security of Tenure — Regular Employees Cannot Be Terminated Without Just Cause
“In cases of regular employment, the employer shall not terminate the services of an employee except for a just cause or when authorised by this Title.”
Once regularised — whether by written acknowledgment or by operation of law under Art. 295 — you have full security of tenure. Any further 'end of contract' would constitute illegal dismissal. Regularisation cannot be avoided by the employer simply issuing a new short-term contract.
DOLE Department Order No. 174 (Series of 2017)
Sections on prohibited contracting and subcontracting — Prohibition on Labour-Only Contracting and Endo
“Labour-only contracting is hereby declared prohibited. A finding of labour-only contracting shall render the principal jointly and severally liable with the contractor to the workers to the extent of the work performed under the contract. Repeated short-term contracting to prevent regularisation is a prohibited labour practice.”
If your employer is cycling you through short-term contracts to avoid your regularisation, this may constitute prohibited labour-only contracting or an illegal circumvention of the Labor Code. File a complaint with the DOLE Regional Office — inspectors have authority to order regularisation.
What Scripture Says
God's Word on This
Luke 10:7 (NIV)
“Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.”
Jesus declared that a worker deserves wages — not as charity, but as a matter of justice. The dignity of workers is not seasonal. An employer who benefits from your labour every month, year after year, but refuses to recognise your status as a regular employee is taking the benefit while denying the responsibility. Catholic social teaching — grounded in this same biblical conviction — insists that the rights of workers are not optional concessions; they are demands of justice. You deserve not just wages but the stability and protection that your contribution to the enterprise has already earned.
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What They'll Say Next
Common Counter-Arguments
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They might say: “You are not really an employee — you are an independent contractor, so the Labor Code does not apply.”
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They might say: “The project you were hired for has ended — that is why your contract is terminating.”
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