Bulatlat.com

Migrant Section
Hong Kong OFWs Urge GMA Anew
to Scrap Placement Fees

BY BULATLAT.COM

A new coalition of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) this week asked President Arroyo to scrap a memorandum circular of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) which they said subjects migrant workers to further exploitation by recruitment agencies.

In their statement sent to Bulatlat.com yesterday, the coalition Samahan laban sa Katiwalian ng mga Recruitment Agencies at Patakarang MC41 (or SKRAP-MC41), also urged the government to investigate POEA officials found to have connections with unscrupulous recruitment agencies who charge exorbitant and illegal placement fees on OFWs.

The demand was addressed to the President following SKRAP-MC41’s meeting last Sept. 16.

The coalition was formed in Hong Kong after nearly two years of pressure politics and lobby work with first, the ousted Estrada administration and, now, the Arroyo government to push their demands.

With their appeals unheeded by both administrations, the migrant workers decided to move their struggle a step further by forming SKRAP-MC41. Comprising the coalition are six federations and alliances of OFW organizations, three migrant-serving institutions and more than 20 other associations. Most of the affiliated members are Filipino domestics.

Connie Bragas-Regalado, spokesperson of SKRAP-MC41 and chair of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK), said the broad coalition will once and for all “put an end to the systematic and abusive practice of crooked recruitment agencies” and to government policies that subject migrant workers to further exploitation.

Last year alone, more than 80 percent of OFWs in Hong Kong were made to pay more than double previous placement fees, or from P30,000 increasing to P100,000, according to a report of the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers (MFMW).

According to the POEA, MC41 which was issued during the Estrada presidency seeks to “further improve protection in the deployment of household workers.” The circular also requires recruitment agencies in the host countries to set up “welfare centers” for OFWs.

In effect, the coalition said, all first-time overseas job applicants must pass through private recruitment agencies because otherwise they cannot work abroad. The circular has virtually empowered the recruitment agencies – whose business is primarily dictated by profit – to raise placement fees overnight.

Such modus operandi, however, is in violation of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Order No. 34 which mandates a recruitment agency to charge fees equivalent only to the applicant’s one-month salary. In Hong Kong, the agency fee should not be more than HK$3,760.

Violations of the placement fee order are known to DOLE and POEA but, despite OFWs’ grievances, nothing is apparently being done to punish let alone investigate the agencies for their reported malpractices.

Since the circular was issued, many OFWs in Hong Kong have found their contracts terminated owing to difficulties in complying with the high placement fees. Other reprisals apparently used by recruitment agencies against Filipino domestics include harassment and court cases.

Minnie Fuscado, a domestic affiliated with the Mindanao Federation, told the coalition that she together with more than 150 workers, sued recruitment agency Active Link and LTV Credit Corporation for unduly terminating their job contracts. But Fuscado found herself counter-sued for estafa allegedly for handing over post-dated cheques she was forced to issue in her desperate effort to comply with overcharged placement fees.

SKRAP-MC41 also said that the circular is part of government’s deregulation policy for its labor export program to turn over overseas employment processing to private recruitment agencies. Under the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 (RA 8042), the regulatory function of the POEA would be abolished. Inevitably, the coalition said, the recruitment and exportation of Philippine labor will become a monopoly of private recruitment agencies.

MC41 also privatizes the welfare services by “requiring” private recruitment agencies to put up “welfare centers” for migrant workers. However, considering the profit motive of recruitment agencies, providing welfare services
is not their priority for the simple reason that it lessens their profits, the coalition said.

Ironically, while the government is privatizing their welfare services, they are still collecting welfare fees (US$25) from each Filipino bound for work abroad, SKRAP revealed.

In a press statement, meanwhile, SKRAP-MC41 invited all OFWs in Hong Kong to participate in their first major activity on Oct. 7 on Chater Road, Central. Among the activities slated is kick-off signature campaign in support of their demands.

The coalition also plans to push a bill in the Philippine Congress making illegal recruitment a heinous crime and to lobby for a congressional inquiry on government officials suspected of colluding with unscrupulous recruitment agencies. Bulatlat.com

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