The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) issued its new guidelines on direct hiring of Filipino migrant workers on 18 December 2007 effective 15 January this year.
The Filipino Community Services and Information Network (FILCOMSIN), an alliance of 40 Filipino migrant worker organizations in Hong Kong, oppose the guidelines on the following grounds:
These new guidelines are a resurrected version of the POEA Memorandum Circular 41 issued in 1994 banning the direct hiring of Filipino migrant workers for abroad. The Filipino migrant workers community in Hong Kong vigorously opposed the ban then because it was against the interests of countless Filipino migrant workers who were benefiting from the direct hire scheme. In 2001, the migrant-led campaign against the ban successfully forced the Philippine government to revoke its implementation in Hong Kong through the DOLE Order 11, Series of 2001. We believe that the conditions that motivated the Filipino migrant community in Hong Kong to campaign against the banning of direct hires have not changed. The new restrictions directly contravene the DOLE revocation of the banning of direct hiring in Hong Kong. We see no justification for these new restrictions on direct hiring now being imposed by the Philippine government.
The Philippine government¡¦s claim that the new restrictions contained in these new Guidelines on direct hiring will provide greater protection for Filipino migrant workers is old empty rhetoric and holds no promise for us. Abuses and exploitation of Filipino migrant workers persist because of the deregulation of the labor export industry by the government to protect the interests of profiteering recruitment agencies and other allied businesses. These business interests and the government are totally dependent on one another and will never put the interests of the migrant workers ahead of theirs.
Time and time again, the government justifies its new rulings and guidelines in the name of our rights and interests as Filipino migrant workers. In actual fact , not only have these instruments not made any real impact on our lives, they have legitimized extractions of new revenues for the government and profits for recruitment and placement agencies at our expense.
The POEA 2006 Guidelines on Household Service Workers (HSW) is a classic example. We have been made to believe that the no placement fee policy under these guidelines is in the best interest of Filipino domestic workers going abroad. Information being gathered by Filipino migrant rights advocates groups in Hong Kong after the new policy was introduced overwhelmingly shows that a typical outbound domestic worker now pays an average of 10 to 12,000 pesos for training fees on top of placement fees amounting to 90 to 100,000 pesos which Hong Kong-based placement agencies continue to charge and share with their Philippine recruiters. Fully aware of the charges being extracted from domestic workers despite its no placement fee policy, the Philippine government is now saying that it has no jurisdiction over Hong Kong companies who are overcharging ¡V an obvious point raised by many when the policy was first introduced. Meanwhile, the charging of training fees by training centers run by private recruitment agencies has surged ahead and without any scrutiny and accountability by the POEA and its sister agency, TESDA.
We are convinced that the new guidelines on direct hire are bound to follow the same pattern. The imposition of a US$ 5000 repatriation bond and US$ 3000 performance bond is a new form of extraction which will have even further negative effects on Filipino migrant workers. These new requirements are likely to lead to a number of scenarios:
a) employers will pass on the charges to the workers
b) employers will recruit via the private recruitment agencies instead of going through the hassles of the direct hire scheme under the new guidelines. The migrant workers will be at the losing end once again. They will be deprived of an opportunity to be recruited with less or without costs on their part under the previous direct hire arrangement.
c) employers will recruit somewhere else which would mean less job opportunities for us and would expose prospective migrants in dire economic situation and desperate to find work abroad to illegal recruitment and to overcharging private agencies.
3. The absence of any reference to the implications of the new guidelines on ¡¥direct hires¡¦ whose papers are in process confirms the government¡¦s ill-thought policy-making processes and insensitivity towards these affected migrant workers.
In conclusion, FILCOMSIN demands that the Philippine government scrap the new POEA guidelines on direct hire. We further demand that the government maintain DOLE Order NO. 11, series of 2001.
We hold the Department of Labor and its agencies, POEA and TESDA, accountable for the continuing extraction of fees from Filipino domestic workers by placement agencies in destination countries and by Philippine training agencies in cahoots with Philippine recruitment agencies.
The Filipino Community Services and Information Network (FILCOMSIN), an alliance of 40 Filipino migrant worker organizations in Hong Kong, oppose the guidelines on the following grounds:
These new guidelines are a resurrected version of the POEA Memorandum Circular 41 issued in 1994 banning the direct hiring of Filipino migrant workers for abroad. The Filipino migrant workers community in Hong Kong vigorously opposed the ban then because it was against the interests of countless Filipino migrant workers who were benefiting from the direct hire scheme. In 2001, the migrant-led campaign against the ban successfully forced the Philippine government to revoke its implementation in Hong Kong through the DOLE Order 11, Series of 2001. We believe that the conditions that motivated the Filipino migrant community in Hong Kong to campaign against the banning of direct hires have not changed. The new restrictions directly contravene the DOLE revocation of the banning of direct hiring in Hong Kong. We see no justification for these new restrictions on direct hiring now being imposed by the Philippine government.
The Philippine government¡¦s claim that the new restrictions contained in these new Guidelines on direct hiring will provide greater protection for Filipino migrant workers is old empty rhetoric and holds no promise for us. Abuses and exploitation of Filipino migrant workers persist because of the deregulation of the labor export industry by the government to protect the interests of profiteering recruitment agencies and other allied businesses. These business interests and the government are totally dependent on one another and will never put the interests of the migrant workers ahead of theirs.
Time and time again, the government justifies its new rulings and guidelines in the name of our rights and interests as Filipino migrant workers. In actual fact , not only have these instruments not made any real impact on our lives, they have legitimized extractions of new revenues for the government and profits for recruitment and placement agencies at our expense.
The POEA 2006 Guidelines on Household Service Workers (HSW) is a classic example. We have been made to believe that the no placement fee policy under these guidelines is in the best interest of Filipino domestic workers going abroad. Information being gathered by Filipino migrant rights advocates groups in Hong Kong after the new policy was introduced overwhelmingly shows that a typical outbound domestic worker now pays an average of 10 to 12,000 pesos for training fees on top of placement fees amounting to 90 to 100,000 pesos which Hong Kong-based placement agencies continue to charge and share with their Philippine recruiters. Fully aware of the charges being extracted from domestic workers despite its no placement fee policy, the Philippine government is now saying that it has no jurisdiction over Hong Kong companies who are overcharging ¡V an obvious point raised by many when the policy was first introduced. Meanwhile, the charging of training fees by training centers run by private recruitment agencies has surged ahead and without any scrutiny and accountability by the POEA and its sister agency, TESDA.
We are convinced that the new guidelines on direct hire are bound to follow the same pattern. The imposition of a US$ 5000 repatriation bond and US$ 3000 performance bond is a new form of extraction which will have even further negative effects on Filipino migrant workers. These new requirements are likely to lead to a number of scenarios:
a) employers will pass on the charges to the workers
b) employers will recruit via the private recruitment agencies instead of going through the hassles of the direct hire scheme under the new guidelines. The migrant workers will be at the losing end once again. They will be deprived of an opportunity to be recruited with less or without costs on their part under the previous direct hire arrangement.
c) employers will recruit somewhere else which would mean less job opportunities for us and would expose prospective migrants in dire economic situation and desperate to find work abroad to illegal recruitment and to overcharging private agencies.
3. The absence of any reference to the implications of the new guidelines on ¡¥direct hires¡¦ whose papers are in process confirms the government¡¦s ill-thought policy-making processes and insensitivity towards these affected migrant workers.
In conclusion, FILCOMSIN demands that the Philippine government scrap the new POEA guidelines on direct hire. We further demand that the government maintain DOLE Order NO. 11, series of 2001.
We hold the Department of Labor and its agencies, POEA and TESDA, accountable for the continuing extraction of fees from Filipino domestic workers by placement agencies in destination countries and by Philippine training agencies in cahoots with Philippine recruitment agencies.
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