Cut-off date of perfected and signed employment contracts
for the deployment of health care workers extended
The Philippine government has allowed all Filipino health care workers (HCWs) with
perfected and signed contracts as of August 31, 2020 to leave the county for work
overseas.
The cut-off date was extended from March 8 to August 31 upon the recommendation of
the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATFEID).
In Advisory No. 47-B Series of 2020, the POEA said the deployment of new hire HCWs
who have perfected and signed contracts as of the new date and have secured an
overseas employment certificates (OECs) as their exit permits can now report to their
employers overseas.
New hire health care workers refer to newly hired HCWs who are direct hires, recruitment
agency hires, including POEA Government Placement Branch hires who were already
accepted under the hiring program of host counties.
All Balik-Manggagawa or returning health workers with OEC exemption certificates are
also allowed to leave the country, as well as the seafarers who were previously hired as
doctors and nurses onboard, and will be deployed by the same licensed manning agency.
The deployment of HCWs will remain under a strict observance of prescribed quarantine
protocols, social distancing measures, as well as in the departure and immigration
formalities in the Philippines, in transit counties, and in countries of work destination.
The POEA, meanwhile, reiterated that outbound passengers with visas that are not
documented through POEA regulations such as US J1 visa, permanent residents,
immigrants or dual citizens of other countries are excluded from the temporary
deployment suspension.
Also, the POEA will continue to prohibit the deployment of HCWs to countries with
imposed travel restrictions. ###
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