Saudi suspends indefinitely new hiring rules

MANILA, Philippines - Saudi and Philippine recruitment authorities agreed Wednesday to move for an indefinite suspension of “unified contract," a proposed system of hiring Filipino workers bound for the oil-rich kingdom.

According to Mr. Ed Mahiya, president of the Overseas Placement Association of the Philippines (OPAP) and federated association of manpower exporters (FAME), the overseas employment industry is thankful to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which linked up with Saudi authorities on this matter.

Mahiya said the unified contract would mean working visas would pass through a Saudi recruitment office, which may encourage the entry of brokers in the hiring process.

Industry leader Lito Soriano said many industry practitioners believe that the unified contract would hike placement fees in the same way that such kind of rules increased placement fees in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and others.

Soriano said that placement fees may increase by P50,000 to P200,000 as the new rules will add a layer in the recruitment system. He added that from 2002 to 2003 this system was proposed but was blocked by the industry.

He said the traditional system of hiring that involves the employer, the Philippine recruitment agency and the worker has allowed many companies like IPAMS and OMANFIL to reap awards because they consistently deploy workers without placement fees.

It also resulted in hundreds of thousands of Filipinos working in the last 30 years in Saudi Arabia without the burden of placement fees, he pointed out. - Fernando de la Cruz, GMANews.TV

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