HK group slams restrictions on OFW direct hiring

A militant group based in Hong Kong on Tuesday criticized a new policy issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) imposing restrictions on direct hiring of overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-Migrante-HK)) said that the “rigid" policy would expose OFWs to more abuses.

“We are being thrown to the wolves, and still the government calls it protection," Dolores Balladares, Unifil’s chairperson, said in a statement.

Only members of the diplomatic corps, international organizations, and government officials of ministerial level, and employers who are hiring on a one-time or trial basis are allowed to directly hire OFWs, under the new POEA policy.

It also requires employers to pay a performance bond of US$3,000 and posting of repatriation bond of US$5,000 per hired OFW.

The performance bond will guarantee payment of the OFW’s salary for the duration of his or her job abroad. The repatriation bond will assure that if the OFW dies, he or she can be sent back to his or her country.

However, Balladares said the policy “will leave (the OFWs) completely under the mercy of recruiters."

He said the policy “will take away the option for direct hiring that migrant workers, particularly in Hong Kong have fought for since the POEA issued Memorandum Circular 41."

The hiring of OFWs was deregulated through the said circular, wherein Filipinos were first made to pass through recruitment agencies before they could be hired abroad by their actual employers.

Balladares also said that forcing overseas employers to pay bonds would discourage them from directly hiring Filipinos.

“Instead of effectively curbing overcharging and illegal practices of recruitment agencies, the [Department of Labor and Employment] DOLE-POEA is making it appear that direct hiring is causing most of the problems of OFWs, thus needing stricter policies," she said.

“But what they want is to ban direct hiring to force OFWs to pass through recruitment agencies, which in statistics and in real life cause our major woes," she added. - Mark Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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