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Monday, March 08, 2004
Dole organizes, helps families of seafarers
THE government is now organizing the families of the country’s international seafarers to be able to easily extend assistance to them when this is called for.
According to Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) Undersecretary Manuel Imson, the agency is now grouping together the seamen’s families into family circles, each circle having 30 families.
“Organizing them locally will smoothen the process of giving assistance to the families of our seafarers. This will also facilitate the implementation of Dole’s programs for them,” he said on the sidelines of the 21st Asian Seafarers’ Summit at Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort last week.
Some of these programs are entrepreneurship programs, which give families lessons on how to start their own businesses, skills testing to see what employable skills they have and the re-employment program for the seafarers themselves, Imson said.
He said Dole aims to form 1,000 family circles within the year.
Some 250,000 Filipinos are now working onboard international cargo and passenger ships. Filipinos comprise 75 percent of the total number of seamen all over the world.
Imson said this is one of the reasons why there are always Filipino casualties in shipping accidents worldwide.
Watch list
He said the country keeps a watch list of employers who do not provide good working conditions to their employees and who do not fulfill contracts.
“We always forewarn our seafarers if they get employed by these companies. However, we can’t stop them if they really want to push through. But if worse comes to worst, we can always impose on our seafarers to stay away from them,” Imson said.
As for the local seafarers, he said the Dole has begun to re-integrate the local seafarers into the programs for the international seamen. Not all benefits provided to the international seamen, however, will be experienced by the local seamen.
“We have constant dialogues with them The government has recognized that local seamanship is a component of the international. After all, international seamen get their experience and training by working in the local area,” he said.
Meanwhile, Imson said a one-stop processing center will be put up within the year at the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency-Cebu to serve the needs of the seafarers.
He added that continuous skills training will also produce not only laborers but leaders in the maritime industry.
“We would like to see more and more Filipino seafarers occupying higher positions in the maritime ladder through constant training and education,” he said. JBN
(March 8, 2004 issue)
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