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Tuesday, August 20, 2002
'No training, no visa' soon up for M. East applicants
SKILLS in household chores like dishwashing and laundry will not be enough for a domestic helper to get work in Saudi Arabia.
Labor Secretary Patricia Sto.Tomas said a "no training-no visa" policy would soon be implemented for all household helpers wanting to work in the Muslim State in the near future.
This would apparently add to the cost of getting work in Saudi Arabia, the favorite destination of about one million overseas Filipino workers.
She said part of the agreement she signed in Saudi Arabia the last time she went there was to implement strict guidelines to train household helpers bound to Saudi Arabia.
"Once this is implemented a household helper will not be granted a visa without getting the proper training," she said.
Currently, she said they are now in the stage of formulating the necessary implementing rules and regulations that would standardize the "no training-no visa" policy.
She said private training centers to be put, would be in -charge of instructing the domestic helpers. These centers will have to be accredited by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), more likely through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
Tesda is also in-charge of accrediting caregiver- training centers bound for Canada. Like those caregivers paying anywhere between P10,000 to P25,000 for six months of training, she said domestic helpers would also need to pay for the training.
Sto.Tomas said part of the formulation stage is the forming of training standards that would be needed for the accreditation.
"This will ensure that we are sending well-equipped workers to Saudi Arabia skilled according to their requirements," she said.
It would be recalled that in the same agreement, Sto.Tomas allowed to move the base salaries of unskilled workers in Saudi Arabia from $200 down to about $150 or equivalent to the basic pay in Metro Manila of about P7,500.
She, however, assured that domestic helpers, among the prime commodities of the country's exported labor, would not be affected with the pay cut, saying minimum pay for all Filipino household workers would remain pegged at $200.
Sto.Tomas said domestic helpers are not included in the unskilled laborer category. Restaurant
dishwashers, busboys, janitors, and the like are considered unskilled workers. (Joshua Dancel) |
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