Saudi envoy agrees to review Unified Contract

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and Saudi Arabia have agreed to form a panel that will review the contentious provisions of the controversial Unified Contract scheme designed by the Saudi government to govern the hiring of overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

The agreement was reached between Senate President Pro Temporer Jinggoy Estrada and Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the Philippines Mohammed Ameen Wali.

Estrada, in a statement, lauded Wali’s decision to take into consideration the concerns raised by the Philippines, particularly the OFWs, regarding the Unified Contract scheme.

“We welcome Ambassador Wali’s offer to labor groups, government officials and manpower agencies to sit down, exchange and reconcile differing thoughts on the unified contract,” he said.

The lawmaker said the contract would invalidate the current “direct business” practice wherein Philippine recruitment agencies directly transact with Saudi employers, and require the agencies to enter into a Unified Contract with a Saudi recruitment agency to be able to deploy OFWs to Saudi.

Implementation of the scheme, viewed by OFW groups and recruitment agencies as an unnecessary move which would even result to increased cost and processing time in OFW deployment to Saudi, was suspended by the Saudi government amidst protests from affected quarters.

“We will pursue to have a bilateral labor agreement between Saudi and the Philippines because such labor accord is the best mechanism to protect our OFWs, especially the household service workers, from maltreatment and abuse. The accord will also ensure our OFWs’ welfare,” Estrada said. - GMANews.TV

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