POEA goes after recruiters collecting placement fees from household service workers


Heeding the instructions of DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz to make
recruiters observe the reform package for Filipino household service workers (HSW),
Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac said the POEA is asking placement agencies to
stop collecting placement fees from HSW applicants or risk losing their license.
Cacdac said there is total prohibition on charging placement fees from Filipino
household service workers (HSWs), whether done prior to their departure or on-site
through salary deduction, as provided by POEA Governing Board Resolution No. 6,
Series of 2006.
The administrator also warned recruiters not to circumvent the no-placement fee
policy by collecting excessive fees supposedly for medical examination, training,
video bio-data, and pre-departure orientation seminar.
Violation of the prohibition on placement fee collection is considered a grave offense
whereby the imposable penalty is cancellation of license, regardless of the number
of complainants.
Cacdac said that consistent with most host country regulations, employers shall pay
a service fee to shoulder all the cost of hiring and deploying HSWs.
“Very clearly, licensed agencies can still collect placement fee or service fee,
provided that it should not be shouldered by the worker but by the foreign principal,”
Cacdac added.
It can be done, Cacdac said, citing the case of a group of licensed recruitment
agencies deploying HSWs to Hong Kong which has decided to scrap collection of
placement fees from its workers.
“I urge other recruiter associations to follow the lead of the 52 members of the
Society of Hong Kong Accredited Recruiters of the Philippines (SHARP), which have
committed to support the government’s campaign to improve the welfare of Filipino
household workers in other countries,” Cacdac said. /END

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