PH labor offices in Saudi to accept offers for OFWs starting Nov. 7
By SUNDY LOCUS, GMA News
Published November 4, 2022 6:23pm

Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al-Khobar will resume accepting job offers for Filipinos who want to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) starting November 7, Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan Ople said Friday. Ople made the remarks after the Philippine government announced in September it will lift the worker deployment ban in the kingdom. “On Monday, our overseas labor offices in Riyad, Jeddah and Al-Khobar shall resume sending offers of employment for Filipino migrant workers of all skills who wish to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Ople told reporters in a hybrid media briefing. “Hindi tayo basta lang magbubukas ng Saudi deployment nang walang malinaw at matibay na pundasyon para sa proteksyon ng ating mga manggagawa,” she said. (We will not hastily lift the Saudi deployment ban without a clear and strong foundation for the protection of our workers.) According to the DMW, a total of 189,826 newly-hired overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were deployed to KSA in 2019 of which 37,278 are domestic workers and cleaners while 152,548 were employed in construction and other occupational skills. Following months of bilateral talks, Ople said both the Philippines and Saudi have agreed on “first-time” reforms in labor policies for migrant work which included: • A new Saudi-specific employment contract with insurance coverage for domestic workers and skilled workers covering unpaid salaries, airfare, and refund of recruitment costs in case of unfinished contracts and other contingencies. The Saudi government will shoulder the insurance cost for skilled workers while Saudi employers are mandated to pay for the insurance coverage of Filipino domestic workers; • A pre-termination clause in the contract that would specifically allow a domestic worker to transfer to or change employers before the end of the contract based on certain grounds such as the non-payment of salary and cases of abuse/maltreatment; • The adoption of a joint alternative dispute settlement mechanism that would pave the way for a more transparent, fair, and amicable settlement of employment disputes; • Integration of the contract, and implementation of the Wage Protection Program, which will regulate and ensure the timely payment of wages to all OFWs; and, • Direct referral of cases involving the trafficking and exploitation of OFWs to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) through its anti-human trafficking department. Likewise, the DMW presented the highlights of the new standard employment contract for OFWs in KSA. Included are the following: Provision for the time and manner of payment of monthly salary through Saudi government-owned digital wallet Contract Insurance Duty to provide health care in accordance with Saudi laws Paid sick leave for 30 days Explicit prohibition to withhold possession of passport, iqama, and other personal documents Repatriation at the employer’s expense in the event of a pandemic or other analogous circumstances Ople said a delegation from Saudi Arabia’s MHRSD is expected to arrive in the Philippines next week to further discuss other topics such as labor issues, wages, automation of payment for OFWs, and the unpaid claims of thousands of OFWs since 2016, among others. “We seek everyone's cooperation especially that of stakeholders in ensuring that the reopening of the Saudi labor market this Monday will be smooth, safe, and fair to everyone concerned, especially our OFWs,” she said. Meanwhile, DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia announced the release of a guideline for a watchlist of blacklisted and whitelisted participating private recruitment agencies, foreign recruitment agencies, and KSA employers to “set criteria on who can participate” in the resumption of deployment of OFWs in Saudi. “Ang whitelist ay may mga requirement. Ito ‘yung criteria na pwede lamang mag-apply ‘yung mga agencies na matino. ‘Yung compliant sa rules ang regulation, nagpo-promote ng ethical and fair recruitment at ‘yung handang tumulong sa mga OFWs na may problema pagdating sa workplaces. ‘Yung whitelist ay ipinatupad ng MHRSD. Ang ibig sabihin ‘yung papayagan natin dito ay papayagan ng Ministry sa kanilang side na i-recognize,” Olalia said.

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