ABOUT a month ahead of the reopening of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) market, the recruitment industry on Sunday, October 2, 2022, vowed to help ensure the successful return of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Middle East state.
In a statement, the Coalition of Licensed Agencies Deploying Domestic Services (Clads) said they are in full support of the efforts of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to bring back OFWs to Saudi Arabia.
"We vow to support the efforts of the Department of Migrant Workers to look for solutions for the early resolution of the temporary deployment ban of household service workers to the Kingdom," said Clads.
"Clads will submit a position paper to (DMW) Secretary (Susan) Ople in preparation for her return trip to Saudi Arabia sometime in November for the negotiations of a new bilateral labor agreement," it added.
Clads said this is the reason why some 180 member-agencies were called to hold a general membership meeting.
Among the issues discussed were the proposed one-year contract, the increase in salaries, blacklisting of recalcitrant Foreign Recruitment Agencies (FRAs), welfare and monitoring process.
Similarly, the assembly also discussed proposals on how to prevent the usual HSW complaints of verbal or physical abuse, unpaid salaries, and unfit working and living conditions.
In September, the DMW announced that OFW deployment in Saudi Arabia is already set to resume on November 7.
The lifting of the ban is expected to immediately benefit some 30,000 OFWs, including 10,000 HSWs.
It was in late November 2021 when then Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III imposed a deployment ban to KSA. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)