Solon wants 'OFW-friendly' recruiters rewarded

MANILA, Philippines - A senator on Wednesday suggested that recruiters of Filipino workers for overseas jobs should get rewards if they deliver proper services to their clients.

The suggestion was made by Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada as he urged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to institutionalize a merit recognition system for "OFW-friendly recruiters" or those that undertake "best practices" in serving OFWs.

He said the scheme would serve as a reward system for agencies that give proper service to migrant workers so that other agencies would emulate them.

“With this program OFWs and applicants would have a guide or yardstick of what kind of service they should get from their agencies," said Estrada, concurrent chair of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development.

The senator said the merit recognition system must not be based on the volume of OFW deployment attained by an agency over a given period, but on the agencies' performance based on the following criteria:

- No placement fee, no salary deduction, no hidden charges;

- Provision of after-deployment service to clients, both workers and employers;

- Provision of advice on career development/enhancement of the workers upon their return to Manila; and,

- Provision of support to the workers' family (spouse and children) left in Manila .

Estrada noted the report on a survey conducted in Hong Kong which showed that most OFWs pay placement fees that are much higher than what is required under the law despite the ban imposed since 2006 by the POEA on the collection of placement fees from Filipinos deployed as domestic workers abroad.

The report, titled "Recruitment Fees, Wages and Remittances of Filipino Migrant Workers in Hong Kong - 2007," was recently released by the Mission for Migrant Workers based on a survey the group conducted from July 29, 2007 to March 11 this year, which involved 493 OFWs as respondents.

The report showed that more than 51% of the survey respondents said they paid between Php 60,000 and Php 100,000 to their recruiters as processing fees, and more than 10% said they paid even more than Php 100,000.

"Many OFWs fall prey to some recruiters that either shortchange them on service or even exploit them because they are not fully aware of the right service due them," Estrada said. - by Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV

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