MANILA, 12 March 2003 — An adviser of President Gloria Arroyo has said the refusal of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to take a stand on the “unified contract” scheme being adopted by a group of Philippine and Saudi recruitment agencies is an abandonment of its mandate to protect the rights and welfare of Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
“The DOLE position does not inspire confidence on government concern for OFWs,” Heherson Alvarez, adviser for Overseas Filipino Communities, said in a memorandum to the president, dated March 4 and released to various groups yesterday.
“(The) position of DOLE (is) not in accord with public policy,” he added.
Under the scheme, the Saudi Embassy in Manila is to process contracts and visas of Filipino workers only if endorsed by the Saudi National Recruitment Committee (Sanarcom and Philippine Recruitment Agencies (PRA), which was represented by the Overseas Placement Association of the Philippines (OPAP).
The Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI) — the biggest group of Philippine placement agencies — opposed the scheme, saying its provisions were “degrading, oppressive” and would reduce Filipino domestic helpers “to slavery.”
PASEI warned that the scheme would also place Philippine recruitment firms under the mercy of the Sanarcom, and that it could lead to higher placement fees for OFWs similar to what is happening in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
It could also result in diminution of wages especially of domestic helpers, and and legalize contract substitution, the PASEI said.
PASEI president Victor Fernandez Jr. had asked the DOLE and Philippine Overseas Workers Administration (POEA) to negotiate a better deal with the Saudi government.
But Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas had said her department was not taking a stand because the scheme was a “private undertaking” between Sanarcom and the PRAs.
In his memorandum, Alvarez recommended to President Arroyo “to cause the suspension” of the scheme and to order the Philippine agencies concerned to renegotiate the provisions “that are contrary to Philippine laws and/or detrimental to the interest of Filipino workers.”
Alvarez said he could not concur with the position of Sto. Tomas that the UC should be left alone because it is a business agreement between private parties.
He said he agreed with the PASEI’s view that the “unified contract” does not appear to be a “free” and “voluntary” contract entered into by the PRA.
“Rather, it is more of an imposition or a dictation by Sanarcom on the hapless Filipino counterparts who desperately need to deploy workers in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
He said it was also clear from the communications of the DOLE that the scheme “does not involve purely ‘private parties’” since the Saudi government was in fact very much in it.
“More importantly, the UC is imbued with public interest which the government should not treat with indifference. This is so because what is at stake is the life, interest and welfare of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos working in the KSA,” Alvarez’s memorandum added.
President Arroyo is expected issue an order on the issue very soon, Malacañang Palace sources told Arab News.
In a open-letter to OFWs in Saudi Arabia recently, Sto. Tomas insisted she was “not washing her hands” off the controversial new hiring policy.
Sto. Tomas said, however, that while “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 law stipulates that Filipinos deployed abroad first sign their work contracts in Manila, which must then be approved by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).
Under the new policy, Saudi employers would be allowed to switch contracts once their Filipino employees arrive in the Kingdom. Under Philippine law, this is illegal and is punishable with lengthy jail terms imposed on the local recruiters.
PASEI’s Fernandez said the refusal of the DOLE to take a stand on the Sanarcom-OPAP deal was surprising since the government went all out in its efforts to oppose the Hong Kong government’s decision to imposes new taxes on Filipino domestic helpers, and yet Saudi Arabia is the Philippines’ biggest overseas labor market.
