Sunday, February 03, 2008 Labor department clears issues on direct hiring of OFW
THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) clarified issues on the policy implementation on direct hiring of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) by foreign employers.
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion explained the provision where employers will have to pay only the premium of the US$5,000 repatriation bond and performance bond equivalent to three months salary of the worker.
"The repatriation bond shall guarantee the actual cost of repatriation of remains of directly hired OFW following death from any cause, and actual cost incurred for repatriation from other causes such as violation or non-compliance with the contract among others. The performance bond shall guarantee compliance of the contract for its entire duration," Brion said.
The bond shall be secured from any Philippine bonding company accredited by the Supreme Court (SC).
Employers will be the ones who will pay the premiums for the bonds.
The foreign employer is also required to provide medical insurance to the worker at an amount equivalent to those provided to nationals of the host country.
Brion said the new guidelines were issued to reinforce the provision of the Philippine Labor Code that prohibits the direct hiring of Filipino workers except for selected employers such as diplomats, heads of international organizations and other employers as may be approved by the Labor Secretary.
Under the existing Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) rules, the general procedure for the recruitment and deployment of OFWs is through POEA-licensed recruitment agencies.
These agency-hired workers are protected under existing regulations such as bonding requirements for licensed recruitment agencies, which guarantees compliance to the terms of the employment contract, particularly relating to money claims of the workers.
In direct hiring, recruitment agencies are not involved and compliance to the contract is therefore dependent on the capability of the foreign employer.
However, Brion said the Dole is open to exemptions from the total implementation of the POEA guidelines per country, employer or workers classification based on the request of the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (Polo).
POEA records showed that in 2007, a total of 26,753 OFWs in the household and other services were directly hired by foreign employers.
The biggest employer of directly hired household service workers was Italy at 5,564 followed by Canada and Spain, while the Middle East hired the most number of non-household service OFWs on direct hiring basis. (FP/Sunnex)
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