MANILA, 10 March 2003 — Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas insisted she was not “throwing OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) to the wind” in keeping her hands off the “unified contract” policy being imposed by Saudi recruitment agencies on Filipino workers.

“Government does not interfere with private initiatives like this. I have no authority to get involved in a purely private sector commercial transaction,” Sto. Tomas said in an open letter to workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Sto. Tomas said, however, although “the unified contract is not a government to government agreement, this should not result in the diminution of existing rights and benefits of Filipino workers and mean an imposition of fees over and above those which the Philippine government mandates and the Philippine standards employment contract will prevail.”

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) head Rosalinda Baldoz echoed Sto. Tomas stand that the unified contract was a recruitment association to recruitment association agreement and not “a contract between the worker and the employer.”

Baldoz added that “the contract is private in nature between the agencies here and Sanarcom (Saudi National Recruitment Committee) and any such contract should not in any way violate our existing policies.”

“(The unified contract) should not also impair and diminish the terms and benefits established in our standard employment contract nor impair the existing labor issue settlement machinery,” Baldoz said.

She said the unified contract should not also result in contract substitution and further delays in the processing of the documents of OFWs.

Earlier, the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI), the largest association of recruitment agencies in the country, opposed the new scheme.

PASEI claimed that the scheme would cause a massive drop in the deployment of Filipino domestic workers to Saudi Arabia since Sanarcom and OPAP would monopolize the hiring activities.

It added that the policy would also cause rampant contract substitution that is a violation of the rights and welfare of Filipino domestic helpers.

“How can we agree with Sanarcom if their unified contract mandates that our workers cannot run away or escape from the harsh conditions our OFWs will be subjected to,” PASEI president Victor Fernandez said in a statement.

According to Baldoz, “the DOLE has made a stand that should there be actual cases any contract violations, the POEA will stand by the enforcement of all provisions in the standard employment contract and our rules and regulations.”

She said the imposition of the unified contract on domestics bound for KSA added to the temporary suspension in the deployment of domestic helpers to Hong Kong led the POEA to institute a review on policies concerning the deployment of all domestics to all countries.

Baldoz said that the POEA sends Filipino domestic helpers to 15 countries all over the world. These are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Syria, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Italy, Ireland, Palau and Saipan.

Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson said from this review, DOLE will recommend a proper course of action to Sto. Tomas within 30 days.

Imson said “this review is geared toward making an assessment of our program and it is intended to come out with recommendations as to policies and program reforms that may be instituted.”

He added that the POEA will also identify other markets for Filipino domestics or possible upgrading of their skills “so that their deployment need not be at the level of a domestic helper or a household worker category.”

Undersecretary Lucita Lazo, in charge of reintegration and workers welfare, added: “this is giving us the impetus to review the skills profile of our domestic helpers because many of them are actually college graduates and teachers who have skills.”