PH recruitment agency: Choose Saudi over banned countries

THE Philippine Recruitment Agencies Accredited to Saudi Arabia (Praasa) on Sunday urged those looking to become household service workers (HSWs) abroad to just go for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for employment opportunities.

The agency encouraged aspiring Filipino domestic helpers to go to Saudi, instead of going for an easier, less tedious process but riskier job opportunity in countries where there are existing deployment bans.

“Be wary in applying with agencies, who are still offering jobs in banned countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Syria,” said Praasa president Maria Mei Victorino.

She noted that some women are easily convinced to work in those countries since they do not undergo the training required, some are medically unfit, and even some are under-aged.

Last week, the KSA government ordered the lifting of the hiring ban imposed to Filipino domestic helpers and will take effect beginning Monday.

To recall, the Saudi government had put in place since March 2011 a ban on hiring Filipino domestic workers after it decided to stop undertaking the mandatory processing and verification of employment contracts of HSWs.

In effect, the directive stopped the deployment of HSWs to Saudi since the verification of employment contracts is part of the requirements in hiring Filipino household workers.

It was later revealed that the KSA government’s decision was a form of protest to the current minimum wage rate for household workers.

The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) labored in having the ban lifted through a series of bilateral talks and dialogues with their counterparts from Saudi, which led to the establishment of a new Standard Employment Contract (SEC) for HSWs.

“Many Saudi employers prefer Filipinas in their households as many of our workers can adopt easily with their employers and able to teach English as a second language for their children, they often act the ‘governess’ in many Saudi homes and are regarded to be efficient and industrious by Saudis,” said Victorino.

She also assured that the recruitment agencies are all too willing to work with the government in ensuring the success of the labor agreement. (HDT/Sunnex)