Group: Deferment of KSA's unified contract not enough

MANILA, Philippines - An alliance of migrant workers said on Wednesday that it was not enough to postpone the implementation of the unified contract scheme in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and instead called for the scrapping of the "unfair" policy.

"The unified contract must be condemned to oblivion!" said Connie Regalado-Bragas, chairperson of Migrante International in a statement. "Its rationale goes against the basic tenets of labor and human rights laws!"

The proposed unified contract scheme that was supposed to be implemented on September 1 drew strong opposition from recruitment and manpower agencies, migrant worker groups as well as several Philippine politicians.

Under the proposal, the Saudi National Recruitment Committee (Sanarcom) will act as a middle man that would facilitate the processing of visas of overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

Philippine recruitment agencies that used to deal directly with employers will have to pass through a Saudi recruitment agency that is a member of Sanarcom with the new scheme.

"Agreeing fully with the terms of the KSA shows how impervious this government is to the runaways and the stranded, the maltreated, the victims of sexual harassment or rape, and the stranded," Regalado-Bragas added.

Lawyer Alberto Abalayan, an official from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency said that OFWs would still have to wait in October, when the Philippines and Saudi Arabia meet in Manila to finally put a lid on the issue.

"A final decision on the unified contract scheme would only be reached when representatives from the Philippines and Saudi Arabia meet for a joint commission in Manila next month," he said.

Meanwhile, Migrante's chairperson called on all concerned sectors to make an appeal to Philippine senators who helped defer the implementation to continue opposing until the scheme is totally scrapped.

The Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (Pasei) told GMANews.TV on Wednesday that it was very grateful to lawmakers, notably Senators Manny Villar and Jinggoy Estrada and Rep. Rex Gatchalian, who took interest in the plight of migrant workers as well as the industry’s concerns.

Villar wrote Saudi Ambassador Ameen Wali on August 26 expressing concern over the “unified contract" scheme. Wali later called Villar to say that the implementation of the new rule had been deferred.

“(The) initial intervention of Senator Estrada and Congressman Gatchalian … is a welcome development in the midst of the observed deafening silence of other government agencies that are mandated to protect our OFWs," said the group in a statement last week. - Mark Joseph H. Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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