OWWA urged to consider current dollar rate in collecting fees from OFWs

The recruitment industry is urging the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA) to take into consideration the current dollar rate in collecting membership fees and other processing fees from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Lito Soriano, former president of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI), noted that with the peso continuing to gain against the dollar, OFWs are paying P250 more in processing and membership fees.

Soriano, president of LBSe-recruitment Solutions Corp., urged the OWWA to consider the current dollar rate in collecting OWWA membership fees under Letter of Instruction No. 537 issued during the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

"OFWs are being short-changed by their payment of P1,275 OWWA fee instead of paying US$ 25 required from every contract processed by the POEA, whether the worker is a new hire, re-hired or balikbayan," he said.

At present, OWWA is still using the former rate of P51 to US$ 1 as the computation of the US$ 25 fee which is equivalent to P1,275.

However, Soriano said that with the continued fall of the dollar against the peso which is now headed to P41 to US$ 1, OWWA should only collect P1,025 or a savings of P250.

"The unjust situation means that OWWA is collecting more than P250 million every year with the one million contracts the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration deploys every year (POEA)," he stressed.

The recruitment industry leader said the OWWA should take immediate steps to correct the imbalance by allowing the OFW to pay the current rate in pesos or dollars if he desires so as to save on his processing fee.

The peso is still bound to appreciate this Christmas with the massive inflow of dollars from OFWs to their dependents and hundreds of thousands OFWs arriving to spend the holidays with their families.

He said that the continued appreciation of the peso against the dollar has already eroded OFWs' income by 20 percent.

"A worker who earns US$ 1,000 monthly (including overtime pay) loses P10,000 monthly with the prevailing exchange rate of less than P42 to a dollar," he said.

Recruitment agencies not collecting placement fees are also reeling from the loss of income with their international transactions pegged to the dollar and are forced to increase their rates with their principals.

Some foreign employers have refused to increase their rates and instead have transferred their business to agencies collecting placement fees, thus increasing the burden of workers with higher placement fees.

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