Migrant Watch

OFWs Press Anew for Sto. Tomas’ Permanent Ban from Labor

Organized Filipino Workers (OFWs) have had it. As far as they are concerned, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas is either bungling on her job as the “protector” of OFWs or appears to be supporting foreign governments’ labor policies, seen by OFWs as anti-migrant worker. The labor secretary’s latest miscues are on Hong Kong’s recent move to cut foreign domestics’ wages and Saudi Arabia’s unified contract scheme.

By AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat.com

“If any ban needs to be imposed, it must be on Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas -- a permanent ban from holding any public office,” Connie Bragas-Regalado, United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) chair said over the weekend.

Hong Kong domestic helpers believe that Sto. Tomas is the “brains” behind President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s announcement last week temporarily suspending the contract processing of Hong Kong-bound domestic workers. The move was made by the President supposed as a quid pro quo to Hong Kong authorities’ plan to cut the salaries of foreign domestics.

Regalado said Sto. Tomas does not even have “a modicum of respect for the opinion of the OFWs" despite the latter’s expression of disapproval to the suspension. The suspension was first introduced by the labor secretary in a visit to Hong Kong last December to lobby against the then proposed levy on Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs) and in a recent Leaders Forum.

UNIFIL-HK also criticized the guidelines released by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) last March 7 for the implementation of the suspension.

The POEA guidelines said only fresh contracts for work in Hong Kong starting March 10 will be affected by the ban.

Contrary to the POEA’s claim that maids renewing contracts would not be affected, however, the guidelines state that the Philippine Consulate will process renewal of contracts in Hong Kong “provided the minimum allowable wage (MAW) stipulated therein is HK$3,670." Regalado said that if the ban still applies, no contract will be renewed.

POEA statistics show that the Philippine government deployed 83,109 Filipinos to Hong Kong from January to August last year. But Regalado disputed that the ban would mean 10,377 Filipinos deprived of jobs every month or 346 daily.

"If we assume a minimum of five dependents per OFW, this translates to 1,730 Filipinos -- children and elderly included -- affected everyday because of the ban. These are the people who will suffer loss of livelihood because of this brainless policy," Ragalado adds. "How can Sto. Tomas' conscience bear to insist this outrageous ban at the expense of the livelihood of 51,900 Filipinos each month the ban is in effect?"

Regalado said that the ban is "equally damaging to the wage cut the Hong Kong government is set to impose" where it will deny almost 7,000 newly-deployed OFWs the chance of still getting HK$3,670 for contracts before the April 1 implementation.

“Her head should roll”

Aside from demanding the lifting of the suspension, Regalado asked Macapagal-Arroyo to fire Sto. Tomas from the office if she is sincere in helping the OFWs.

Regalado said that Sto. Tomas’ “single-minded thrust of selling Filipinos abroad” has already done "considerable harm to the livelihood of migrant workers," including the wage slash in Taiwan and Saudi Arabia.

"For her consistent anti-migrant and anti-worker performance in her office, her head must roll before it's too late, " Regalado added.

Unified contract as legal slavery

Meanwhile, Ramon Baultron, managing editor of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) disputed the claim of Sto. Tomas that her department has no part in the unified contract scheme under the Saudi Arabia National Recruitment Committee Unified Contract (SANARCOM-UC). Citing reports from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bultron said that the labor secretary even boasted to OFWs that she had discussed the policy with Saudi labor officials during her visit in May 2002.

Bultron descibed the unified contract as a “scheme that institutionalizes the rampant contract substitution in Saudi Arabia.” He said that it is done through contract substitution by giving new OFWs arriving in Saudi Arabia a different contract from the one they have processed in the POEA.

Unlike the Model Employment Contract of the POEA that sets the benchmark in wage and other benefits that OFWs should receive, Bultron said that the inhuman provisions of the substitute contract force many OFWs to run away from their employers and become stranded.

Bultron said that Sto. Tomas is aware of the plan because it is the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) which supervises and monitors policies of Philippine recruiters. He even argued that as the head of DoLE which should provide protection to migrant workers from exploitative working conditions, Sto. Tomas must be held accountable for the implementation of UC.

”This is the legal slavery that Sto. Tomas and the DoLE have surrendered our OFWs into,” Bultron said. “This is the fate of the OFWs that Sto. Tomas must answer for. Whatever her name implies, Sto. Tomas is hardly a saint but a modern Pontius Pilate.”

On the other hand, APMM urged Macapagal-Arroyo to act for the scrapping of the unified contract and ask the Saudi government to institutionalize protective systems for migrant workers, instead of being a part of the “modern slavery.”

“It is high time for Sto. Tomas to stop washing her hands off of anti-migrant policies that she has either instigated or has been a party in its conception,” Bultron said.

Bultron likewise stated that KSA migrant workers are “more than eager to see Sto. Tomas completely off the office that she has held so irresponsibly.” Bulatlat.com

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