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TO work in the US with high prospects of earning a
good salary and the chance of becoming a permanent resident, and
eventually a naturalized American citizen, is the big dream of many
Filipinos.
That is the reason many parents
have chosen nursing as the career of their children because the US,
suffering from an acute shortage of nurses, has left its doors wide
open to thousands of Filipino and other foreign nurses to work in
its hospitals and medical centers.
Since job openings in the US are
primarily for nurses, some Filipino doctors have decided to enroll
in nursing schools to earn a nursing diploma to qualify for
admission to work in that country.
But there are times, though rare,
when the US accepts other types of workers. Late last year, for
instance, some 200 Filipino workers were admitted to work in the
Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. They entered the US on
H2B visas.
The recruits jumped at the chance
to work in the US notwithstanding the high application cost. They
paid a total of $5,000 (about P200,000) for processing and placement
fees and the cost of a two-way air ticket.
They were told that their work
contract was for 10 months, with a possible renewal of their visas
to enable them to stay longer and continue working. They were
supposed to have started working in October last year but they
arrived in the US only in January.
Recently, they learned that they
were to work only until July, or only seven of the 10 months
stipulated in their contract. They were told that only 50 of the
group would be granted visa extensions for which they were required
to pay $1,200 in processing cost.
The news came as a shock to the
rest of the workers. Their dream of a chance to obtain a green card
turned into a nightmare. Their plight was exacerbated for being
given a limited number of work hours per week and not getting the
salary they deserve. On top of that, they were required by their
recruitment agency, the Yes Human Resources, to pay their house
rentals for the duration of their stay.
The workers ask: How can we
recover our expenses, having worked only for seven instead of 10
months? Is it not the employer’s responsibility to pay for our
house accommodation?
Their plight has been brought to
the attention of the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco by Ms
Josefina Bernat, a Filipino permanent resident married to a US
citizen and proprietor of Fil Entertainment Productions. She is an
active parishioner of the Little Flower Church where the workers
usually hear Mass.
Ms Bernat recently arranged a
meeting with the workers in a venue provided by the parish at which
they presented signed petitions against their recruiter and their
employer.
On being informed of the case,
Deputy Consul General Antonio Morales and Labor Attache Florinda
Herrera immediately set a mission for Reno to look into the
complaints of the workers.
There was no showing that the
workers’ recruitment had been processed by the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration and there was no mention of their monthly
salary.
A new hiring program
The POEA and the Taiwanese
government have devised a new hiring program for Filipinos to work
in Taiwan. Its main feature is called the eRecruitment System whose
implementation is scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
The program was to have been
launched on April 11 but it was deferred to allow Labor Secretary
Marianito Roque to visit Taiwan for the launching in September.
The design of the system in
English has been developed by the POEA and reviewed by Ms Eunice
Caw, an industrial engineer and IT expert recommended by the MECO
Labor Center. It is being translated into Chinese for a better
understanding of its provisions by Taiwanese employers.
The new hiring system will
facilitate the recruitment and processing of workers for Taiwan.
Workers will pay a mobilization cost of not more than P20,000.
The POEA has also a workers
hiring agreement with South Korea called the Employment Permit
System. No placement fee will be collected from workers but are
required to pay the processing and mobilization cost of P20,000 or
less.
agro324@yahoo.com
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