“The 10 Filipino workers ran away from their employer twice after their contract was substituted, resulting in a situation where many of them were not fit for the jobs they were assigned to. Their salaries were also lower than what they had signed for before leaving the Philippines.”
Contract substitution is when a Filipino worker signs a contract back home in order to gain necessary clearance and then has his or her contract replaced with fewer benefits, less pay or other alterations after arriving in Saudi Arabia. The Philippines mandates that a $400 (SR1,502) a month minimum wage must be established, among other terms, in a contract before an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) is issued a clearance to depart. Villazor said that POLO negotiated with the two recruitment agencies in Manila — AISIS and Al-Ahram — and their representative in Saudi Arabia.
“We suggested that we resolve the problem by coming up with amicable settlements. As a result, the agencies paid the tickets while the OFWs had to pay Afras SR1,000 each,” he said, adding that six more Filipino workers will also be leaving on April 20.
At present, POLO is working for the repatriation of 23 more Filipino workers who ran away from Afras.
The 10 OFWs who left were identified as: Esmari Mursimal, Malayan Ignacio, Salih Mujahid, Esmail Benjamin, Mamalo Nasser, Nadi Jahparhalil, Caril Esmael, Ngapas Mohammad, Bali Samsudinom and Alimao Norodin.
“These Filipino workers were initially assigned to various Afras projects in the Kingdom. Eventually, all of them were reassigned to a project in Al-Kharj in Riyadh,” Villazor said.
