MANILA, 1 March 2003 — The “unified contract” plan initiated by a group of recruitment agencies in Saudi Arabia in hiring foreign manpower contained provisions detrimental to the welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), a lawmaker said yesterday.
Sanarcom, or the Saudi National Recruitment Committee, sought the “unified contract” to protect the “interests of both the Saudi employer and the non-Saudi employee.”
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, filed Senate Resolution No. 559 urging the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to make a thorough review of the said contract, which a Filipino worker should sign before gaining employment in the kingdom.
Biazon said the “unified contract,” to be enforced by the Saudi Royal Embassy in the Philippines starting March 4, contains questionable provisions that sidestep OFW rights and privileges upon the commencement of their respective employment contracts in the Kingdom.
“The POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Agency) Standard Employment Contract of the workers will not be honored by the Sanarcom brokers for our Filipino domestic and household workers anymore,” Biazon said. “Filipino domestic helpers can no longer refuse any type of work nor could they run away to escape from an unbearable situation or work condition which is a detrimental provision found in the unified contract.”
The Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. has also charged that the Sanarcom plan is “unfair.”
Biazon said complaints or claims against their Saudi employers will be decided by a so-called private “joint committee” in Saudi Arabia, completely disregarding the legal authority and jurisdiction of the Philippine National Labor Relations Commission.
According to Biazon, OFWs will be asked to sign another employment contract once Sanarcom members receive them, thereby launching a massive practice of contract substitution, which is punishable under RP laws as an act of illegal recruitment.
“There is a very urgent need for both the DFA and DOLE to conduct a meticulous and immediate examination of the Unified Contract and take remedial action, if necessary,” Biazon said.
