Protesters carry placards denouncing high fees collected on overseas Filipino workers.
MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 10, 2012) – Overseas Filipino workers have complained against excessive placement fees being charged by recruitment agencies, according to Migrante-Middle East.
John Leonard Monterona, Migrante’s regional coordinator, urged OFWs to file charges against erring recruiters after receiving the same complaints from Filipinos victimized by these agencies.
“We are urging our fellow OFWs to document their respective cases involving excessive charging of placement fee in order for us to file a complaint against these erring recruiters with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration so that they can be investigated and penalized,” Monterona said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Monterona also cited the case of several OFWs who were recently deployed in Libya and claimed that they were forced to pay excessive placement fee which was more than the amount allowed under Philippine laws. They also complained of having poor living quarters while some even had no accommodation at all.
“The reports were confirmed to me by Tripoli-based Philippine Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa. He, too, advised the complaining OFWs to document and file charges against the erring recruiter so that he could make the necessary recommendation to the POEA,” Monterona said.
Monterona explained that POEA Rules and Regulations Governing Recruitment and Deployment of Land-based OFW, all licensed recruitment agencies are allowed to collect placement fee equivalent to the one month salary of OFW.
However, there are exemptions made by the POEA, such in the case of host countries that do not allow the charging of placement fee because the employer pays the placement and recruitment services fees. Canada, UK, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, and the U.S.A, including Guam are countries with existing “no placement fee” policy that Philippine-based recruitment agencies must abide; otherwise they risk penalty for every violations.
“Even in the Middle East, most of the employers are paying to recruitment agencies so called ‘service’ fee to cover the cost of hiring and deployment of OFWs,” Monterona said.
Monterona said he could not understand why the POEA allows recruitment agencies to charge placement fee equivalent, or even excessive.
He said: “OFWs were surprised to know that their employer had, in fact, already paid the corresponding placement or service fee to its recruitment agency, and yet their recruitment agency had also charged placement fees on them.”
Monterona urged the POEA to intensify its monitoring activities and campaign against erring recruiters who are imposing excessive and unnecessary placement fees. He said violation of placement fee policy is a serious administrative offense that warrants cancellation of the license of the recruitment agency.
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