MANILA – Legitimate recruitment agencies in the Philippines have accused the government of witch hunting following a sudden crackdown on those believed substituting labor contracts of Filipino workers abroad.
The crackdown has led to the closure of many recruitment agencies even without the benefit of a thorough investigation. And this has severely affected many overseas Filipino workers or OFWs, who were left without legal and social protection from their recruitment agency.
And the arbitrary action of Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and the Department of Labor and Employment in cancelling permit of recruitment agencies has only worsened the situation of OFWs.
Recruitment agencies have been accused also of being in cahoots with foreign employers in contract substitution, an accusation strongly denied by the Association of Recruitment Agencies of the Philippines.
It said recruitment agencies has become the “whipping boy” of the government’s failure to address the persistent problems of OFWs, especially those in the Middle East where over 100 on death row and more than 7,000 still languishing in jails.
Distress and repatriated OFWs are mostly cases of contract substitution and labor malpractices committed by erring employers and not by recruitment agencies.
The problem starts when foreign employers do not honor the recruitment agency’s contract for many reasons and one of them is to avoid paying the correct salaries and allowances and other fringe benefits stipulated in the contract.
Many hired or deployed OFWs had been asked by their employer and even forced to sign a new contract upon arrival at their job site.
The Association of Recruitment Agencies of the Philippines said the original employment contract is intended to protect OFWs labor rights as set forth in the terms and conditions of their employment.
It said recruitment agencies are like an “umbilical cord” that connects the OFWs to their families, and to the government because of their role in the deployment of workers and their welfare and also in nation building.
Raisonel Datu Magangcong, president of the Association of Recruitment Agencies of the Philippines, earlier pledged to help Filipinos who are languishing in jails abroad by funding training for diplomats, lawyers and social workers from the ranks of Bangsamoro professionals.
The fund would also help to support and establish legal and humanitarian assistance for overseas Filipino workers in jails.
Magangcong even wrote a letter to the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has signed a peace accord with Manila, and extended the offer.
Magangcong also called on fellow Muslims to help the Aquino government save the lives of Filipinos in death rows in the Middle East. He urged the government to allocate more funding for additional embassy personnel and consular offices in the Middle East, especially in countries where there are large presence of Filipino workers, to ensure their welfare.
He said the association will also sign a memorandum of agreement with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority for competency standardization of embassies’ personnel. It said the partnership aims to raise competent delivery of the welfare of OFWs and effective rapport with employers and government of the host country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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