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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration’s (POEA) governing board has amended its policy on
direct hiring by exempting foreign employers in countries where
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are assured of protective
mechanisms, particularly repatriation and payment of salaries and
benefits.
Earlier, the recruitment industry urged the POEA
to immediately recall Memorandum Circular No. 4 series of 2007,
contending it would marginalize OFWs who seek their own employers
through their own efforts, via the Internet or their relatives.
Migrante, a federation of migrant worker’s
organizations, also protested the new guidelines and asked for its
scrapping.
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion, who is also
chairman of the POEA governing board, explained on Tuesday that
under the amended circular, qualified employers need not pay the
premium for the $5,000 repatriation bond, and performance bond
equivalent to three-months’ salary of a worker.
In compliance with the amended circular, Brion
said he already directed the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs)
in 35 sites with high concentration of OFWs abroad to verify the
existence and the enforcement of protective mechanisms that would
ensure the repatriation and payment of salaries to Filipino workers
in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
Brion said the POLOs in Italy, Geneva, and Hong
Kong have so far confirmed that the requirements guaranteeing
repatriation assistance and payment of salaries to OFWs are being
strictly complied with by employers.
Also exempted are employers in Canada hiring
OFWs . The Canadian government imposes sufficient welfare protection
for foreign workers.
Under the existing POEA rules, the general
procedure for the recruitment and deployment of OFWs is through
licensed recruitment agencies. These agency-hired workers are
protected under existing regulations such as bonding requirements
for licensed recruitment agencies, which guarantees compliance to
the terms of the employment contract, particularly relating to money
claims of the workers.
In direct hiring, recruitment agencies are not
involved and compliance to the contract is therefore dependent on
the capability of the foreign employer.
POEA records show that in 2007, a total of
26,753 OFWs for household and other services were directly hired by
foreign employers.
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