JOINING job fairs online will still require licensed recruitment agencies to secure authorization from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia said the required Job Fair Authority (JFA) under POEA Memorandum Circular 05-2017 remains in effect.
"Notwithstanding the peculiarity of the job fair, which would be conducted in an online/virtual platform, as opposed to the traditional conduct of the same in a specific physical venue, the requirement of securing the JFA would still be applicable," said Olalia in POEA Advisory 138-2020.
"Even though the job fair would be conducted online, the requirements for the same, insofar as licensed recruitment agencies intending to participate, should not be dispensed with," he added.
Under the Circular, agencies who would be participating in the Department of Labor and Employment-approved job fair are directed to secure from the POEA the required JFA prior to their actual participation in such activities.
Olalia said the policy should remain as the circumstances of having such activity online do not remove the recruitment firms from the purview of regulation and monitoring by the concerned offices.
This, he explained, is in order to ensure that applicant workers are guided accordingly in participating in online job fairs.
In addition, Olalia said this is so that those who conduct recruitment activities as participants in such online event are ascertained as being authorized to do so.
"The fact that the same would be conducted online would only affect the venue of the activity. All other aspects of the job fair would remain the same," said Olalia.
The POEA issued the advisory as there are already some Public Employment Service Offices that are conducting and/or scheduling the conduct of online job fairs. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)