Filipinos rally against proposal to ‘rent out’ overseas workers

A large number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) across the globe, particularly in Saudi Arabia, have strongly opposed a new proposal by the Philippine’s Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), where OFWs coming through some Saudi Arabia based-recruitment companies will be up “for rent” to employers from both government offices and private firms.

According to Akbayan Partylist Rep. Walden Bello, the planned agreement between DoLE and the Saudi recruitment companies, DoLE will be the sole sponsor and direct employer of Filipino workers. The salaries of OFWs will be dictated by the agencies and will eventually be reduced as the OFWs will be “for rent.”

“This is if DoLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, who is due to visit Saudi Arabia this month, signs an agreement with 10 big recruitment companies which will legally allow Saudi companies and recruiters to independently recruit Filipino workers and rent them out to private and government employers,” he said.

Each mega recruitment company can accredit a maximum of five Philippine licensed agencies and will place job orders from the local recruitment companies. The companies will be the direct employers and will sub-contract these OFWs to government institutions such as hospitals and private companies who require Filipino manpower services.

Under this scheme, the service fees of local recruitment agencies can be reduced and since the companies are the brokers, there will be a cut-throat competition among the local agencies to procure business. Consequently the burden of excessive recruitment costs will be borne by the OFWs.

OFW Rodell Ubaldo Obedoza based in Riyadh said, “I am under a sub-contract company in Riyadh and I would say that sub-contracting is not good at all. The salary is meager and often delayed. The whole system is very bad,” he noted.

Lito Averilla Caro an OFW said, “The DoLE should have some checks and balances and think of the welfare of the OFWs in general and not the agencies who are just looking to their own profits. If this happens, we will be in a mess again because it could affect the economy of the country in terms of the remittances.”

In his networking group page, OFWs International advocate Rashid Arañas Fabricante sent an urgent message against the proposal and advised his fellow OFWs to wake up and take action against the wholesale commodification of the OFW.

Soriano said this labor-importing concept suggested by the mega recruitment companies will be similar to the broker-driven market in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, thus raising the possibility of increased costs for the OFW and oppressive terms and conditions of employment.

In addition, this system will institutionalize a virtual monopoly of the companies in getting workers from the country similar to the medical test system of the Gulf Countries Council.

Furthermore, it will negate the full protection and welfare benefits provided under the previous R.A. 8042 and amended by R.A. 10022 since OFWs will now be working under abnormal conditions in the mega recruitment companies in Saudi Arabia.