MANILA, 4 May 2003 — Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas yesterday rejected a fact-finding committee’s recommendation to protest the Unified Contract being required from Filipino domestic helpers by the Saudi National Recruitment Committee (Sanarcom).

The committee headed by National Labor Relations Commission chief Roy Se?eres concluded that the Unified Contract scheme, while ostensibly meant to protect the rights of affected workers, would actually put Filipino maids in a more precarious position.

It also cited other reasons, such as a violation of Philippine recruitment laws since the Unified Contract would effectively legalize employers to engage in contract substitution and stripping workers of the right to skip from abusive employers.

Sto. Tomas maintained her position that the dispute over the Unified Contract scheme is actually an offshoot of the quarrel between two Philippine recruitment organizations — the PASEI (Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc.) and OPAP (Overseas Placement Agencies of the Philippines).

“I will not intervene in a private sector agreement, which is what the Unified Contract is. I will not protest it because the government is not involved in it,” she told reporters.

She said she would not take a position between PASEI and OPAP for fear that she would be accused of being on the take.

In its report to the labor chief, the Se?eres committee pointed out that even the OPAP representative during their hearing on March 26 in Manila objected to the Sanarcom plan.

As shown in the minutes of the committee hearing, a copy of which was furnished Arab News, OPAP official Lupo Rivera denied that their organization signed an agreement with Sanarcom.

He said what happened was that when they were on a trade mission in Saudi Arabia last October, they were invited to a meeting by some Sanarcom leaders, who he said insisted on discussing the Unified Contract issue. Rivera said they begged off from discussing the subject and as they found out later, the Unified Contract scheme was “onerous and inferior and non-private.”

Rivera said OPAP’s position was very clear, that if the new scheme being introduced by Sanarcom will honor the rules of the Philippine government, there is no harm in continuing discussions with them.

“But outright, the Unified Contract is not acceptable to OPAP. Just like the positions of our brother NGOs and other associations, we do not sanction this.

“We do not recommend it to our members. If one or two members of OPAP sign it, it is on their own look out. We cannot agree with them because they are putting themselves in jeopardy,” Rivera told the hearing.

Rivera also described the terms and conditions of Sanarcom scheme as “onerous and illegal.”

“It is about time maybe that the government must impose a standard recruitment agreement to be followed by industry’s practitioners.

“In that way if any term will not be protective of the worker, as it is the concern of our NGOs. Then (the) POEA will not process the accreditation of the job order. In that way all parties are protected,” he added.

All the other groups represented in the hearing expressed their objection to the scheme and each one maintained that the Philippine government should take up the issue with the Saudi government since it clearly involved both governments.

Among those represented during the meeting, apart from OPAP and PASEI, were Migrante International, Women and Development Foundation, Kaibigan, the Kasapi Congress of Jeddah, and the Migrant Workers Committee.

OPAP and PASEI both said it is not only the Overseas Filipino Worker who would be affected adversely by the scheme.

Under the contract, they said, while the employer and the Saudi recruitment agency could escape penalties in case of a contract problem, the Philippine recruitment agency would have to answer to the Philippine government.

PASEI president Victor Fernandez said they were asking for the government’s intervention to prevent a “disaster” from happening.

Others said it was unfair for the Department of Labor and Employment and the POEA to just let the Sanarcom and local recruiters proceed with the contract and to run after the recruiters if an OFW gets in trouble.

Secretary Sto. Tomas signified that this was precisely what she would do as she warned local recruiters against violating Philippine labor laws.

“We have a standard Philippine contract. If the recruiters in any way deviate from it and take their chance, I will run after them. So maybe they should negotiate with Sanarcom,” she said.

In a show of displeasure over the committee’s recommendation, Sto. Tomas told reporters that if NLRC chief Roy Se?eres objected to the unified contract scheme, he should write the protest himself. (With inputs from Inquirer News Service)