DoLE sets stricter rules on direct hiring of OFWs

[pinoy_guy]

new rules on ofw hiring issued

[color=dimgray]saturday, january 19, 2008

stricter rules on direct hiring of ofw was issued recently by the philippine overseas employment administration. the rules which takes effect on january 15, 2008 allows direct hiring of ofws by foreign employers only upon approval by the secretary of labor and subject to screening of employers and employment contract verification by the labor attaché or the philippine embassy.

this effectively shuts the door for adjustment of status cases for filipinos.

how long will the screening and contract verification take?

how much money?

direct hiring may be allowed only for members of the diplomatic corps and of international organizations, government officials of ministerial level, and employers who are hiring on one-time or trial basis. the number of employees to be hired directly shall not exceed 5.

nurses are not members of the diplomatic corps nor of international organizations...

employers who do not want to comply with the bonding and insurance requirements or with the standard employment contract will not be allowed to hire ofws directly. but they may hire thru licensed placement agencies which are willing to assume responsibilities over the employees, including payment of salaries and other employment benefits.

ofws with employment contracts and work visas issued after january 15, 2008 will be covered by the new guidelines. the new guidelines for direct hiring is posted at the poea website (www.poea.gov.ph).

another disincentive to hire filipino workers, nurses included.

hoops to jump through.

while other countries are ramping up production of nurses for us hospitals, the philippine government is setting up obstacles.

----- ----- -----

in case some filipinos think this is a harmless little change in policy...

shabby treatment of ofws at airport

[color=dimgray]by artemio v. panganiban

[color=dimgray]philippine daily inquirer

[color=dimgray]first posted 23:27:00 01/05/2008

our daughter tet . . . became an "expat" in the united states.

she has never needed any government assistance in her job or daily life. . . . nonetheless, whenever she came to visit, she always patiently applied for "clearances" and willingly paid all fees required by the philippine overseas employment administration (poea) and the overseas workers welfare administration (owwa).

what she laments are the hassles whenever she exited naia.

. . . she and her brood left for bangkok and flew back here on dec. 28, with the intention of returning to new york on the early morning of jan. 2, 2008. prior to her departure for bangkok, she applied for the clearance required by the poea from all ofws who are returning to their places of work.

why she needed this clearance, in the first place, is beyond me.

in any event, two poea/owwa personnel at the naia told her that, to obtain her clearance for her us trip, she had to fall in line at their "edsa office" upon her return from bangkok. tet carefully explained that she was coming back to manila at 7:15 p.m. on friday, dec. 28 and leaving for the united states on jan. 2 at 7:55 a.m. the intervening days were all non-working holidays, which made falling in line at the "edsa office" impossible. her simple explanation was shrugged off uncaringly by the duo. "wala kaming paki [we don't care]," they chorused. they also refused to give her a clearance application form.

i think this clearance requirement is an infringement of every filipino's right to travel.

except for criminals, and those with cases filed against them--these people need clearance from the court or immigration.

does this mean that every filipino ofw is now a criminal, requiring clearance to leave the country???

more ofw gripes

by artemio v. panganiban

philippine daily inquirer

first posted 23:03:00 01/12/2008

"the poea hassles consume about four hours. at an average of 3,000 ofws queuing daily, this means a loss of 12,000 hours. since ofws earn at least p30 per hour, the time wasted translates to at least p360,000 per day. aggravating the loss is the anxiety suffered by ofws waiting at the 'extremely humid environment at poea.' poea-issued electronic id cards that cost $25 each are totally useless because poea has no facilities to process them.

"when i left manila on jan. 3, 2008, i noted that of the 20 immigration counters, only 10 were manned. that is why it took 45 minutes for me to get through. also, there was only one desk processing terminal fee exemptions. all in all, i was nearly late for my flight because it took me more than three hours to go through airport formalities. i have been an ofw for 25 years in taiwan, saudi arabia, and india but 'nothing compares to the philippines in inefficiency when it comes to basic services for ofws.'"

i had the same experience last nov. 30, a friday and a philippine holiday. ...my present employer . . . offered me a two-year teaching job effective dec. 3, 2007. unlike your daughter, i did not register at the poea because, as a direct hire, i thought i didn't have to.

"while checking in, a masculine woman at one of the immigration counters told me to get a clearance from the poea counter in the airport. the supremely arrogant creature at the poea told me to go to the poea (main) office (at edsa) on monday, dec. 3. i said i was supposed to fly to singapore on that day.

she said condescendingly, 'well, rebook your flight.'

i wanted to scream and weep."

"i got my job at an investment bank after graduation. . . my employer and i handled all the paperwork for my h1b visa. what puzzles me is why filipinos who have obtained employment directly from legitimate foreign companies, and not via any employment agency or the poea, are subjected to poea requirements. there are many others like me--'analysts, vps, managing directors in top-tier industries'--who are not aware of and are victimized by unwanted poea red tapes."

". . . a woman from the northern province of cagayan valley, after having been made to go back and forth between the poea office and the immigration counter, missed her flight and started begging the airline staffers, the people at the poea and at the information counter to help her get to the next flight since she had a connection flight that she did not want to miss.

no one bothered to give her a second look; they all turned their backs on her, leaving the poor woman weeping worried that she might have lost the opportunity to provide her family a better life."

"the owwa fee is paid once every two years or at every contract renewal. i had a two-year contract but the poea computer showed that it was for one year only; ergo, i had to pay again since my contract had expired. i explained to the poea staff at the counter that they had the wrong info. but she dismissed me and told me to complain to the recruitment agency. 'isn't poea the government office that is supposed to protect me from the malpractices of recruiters? but here i am being told to bring my complaint to the recruitment agency!'"

"as soon as airport officials saw my work visa as a telecommunications consultant, they asked for my poea documents, which i did not have because i did not go through poea.

they confiscated my passport and plane tickets.

but what i resented the most was the term they used, 'nahuli,' as if i was some villain.

worse, i missed my flight and lost the employment.

luckily, a new job opened. after undergoing one week of red tape at poea, i was finally able to fly to the maldives."

. . . explained that the poea processes were intended "to monitor" ofws so they could be assisted during "crises or emergency situations." she said that ofws should get overseas employment certificates (oec) from our embassies and consulates prior their visit here, or from poea offices after they arrive. "only in extreme cases" are poea counters at the airports "authorized to issue one-day exit clearances."

finally, she added that poea would soon provide a free ofw id card "to replace the paper oec." (avp: other than this miserable card, surely, poea must urgently reinvent itself, its processes and its personnel to be more caring and efficient. for the sake of poor, ordinary ofws, i will monitor how the poea responds to their gripes and serves them fittingly as heroes.)

and people wonder why thousands of filipinos are leaving daily.

[lawrence01]

Just giving a clarification that the term OFW (Overseas Foreign Worker) is only those using working visas. An immigrant, regardless if family-based or employer-based, to another country is not considered an OFW.

[cheskarav]

http://www.poea.gov.ph/mc/mc4_2007_namehire.pdf

-- New policy for direct hiring

Some OFWs and concerned citizens are signing up against this policy.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/antiOFWcircular/signatures.html

haaay, nakakainis lang talaga ang gobyerno natin.. mahilig mag-self-destruct. umaasenso na sana dahil sa mga remittance ng OFW tapos gagawin ang ganito

[pinoy_guy]

just giving a clarification that the term ofw (overseas foreign worker) is only those using working visas.

you're right.

green card holders are exempt.

the ones who are going to be hit are the working visa and advanced parole people.

and there are a lot of them, not just nurses...even it people who had been visiting the philippines every year since 2001 might get a rude awakening if they're stopped from taking their flight back to a foreign land to work.

[rafaeltoney]

ey guys!

did some reading on the direct hire stuff and found out that it's not as bad as most of us had thought...

the $5k repatriation bond and 3-months-equivalent-salary bond is a BOND...and bonds are like accident or medical insurance coverage, thus one has only to pay the premiums...say, a 100k coverage is paid with an anual premium of only 1k...in the case of the repatriation bond acrdng to what I read, the 5k can be had for $35 anual premium or $55 for the 15K bond.... sad thing though, the additional red tape is still in place..like the approval by the POLO, Secratary of Labor, etc..

link from the POEA forum site......page 9, post 126 http://bbayani.proboards56.com/index.cgi?board=oe&action=display&thread=1197950835&page=9

[pinoy_guy]

the $5k repatriation bond and 3-months-equivalent-salary bond is a bond...and bonds are like accident or medical insurance coverage, thus one has only to pay the premiums...say, a 100k coverage is paid with an anual premium of only 1k...in the case of the repatriation bond acrdng to what i read, the 5k can be had for $35 anual premium or $55 for the 15k bond....

with increasing numbers of nurses from other countries applying for jobs in us hospitals (india, china, korea, japan), and with these countries not requiring this "bond"...where do you think would the us hospitals get their nurses?

a friend who works in kaiser mentioned that kaiser went to the philippines a couple of years ago to recruit...and had to abort. this was the time when the philippine government set some conditions, among them a "bond" of around 1 million pesos, plus miscellaneous fees and permits (which also cost money).

bottom line is, all these "bonds" are demotivating the us hospitals from hiring filipino nurses.

did some reading on the direct hire stuff and found out that it's not as bad as most of us had thought...

it is as bad as most of us had thought.

or worse.

[GSG9ers]

Bonds or no Bonds, I think the Philippine government should consult those people who will be affected by this new memorandum. One good scenario is that all new graduates of Philippine nursing will be required to have 2 year work experience before were allowed to leave the country. . . Yes its true that the filipino people deserves the best quality care that we can offer. But how can we achieve this if those people who are rendering care are also in need. How will we give care if we nurses are not being taken care of by our own government.

[pinoy_guy]

solon wants memo on ofw hiring scrapped

"it turns out that this policy could be another moneymaking venture of the current administration to further render ofws as milking cows for government coffers," casiño said.

duh.

he questioned the requisites for two ofw categories in the memo, such as the skilled category and household service workers. these types of ofws are required to get a certificate of worker coverage under a "repatriation bond" worth us$5,000 or its peso equivalent. the memo states that the ofw will not be made to pay this amount, as this would be charged to the employers.

"although the four-page memo states that the ofw will not shell out anything, ofws will still foot these amounts as their employers will pass these on to them by underpayment or salary deductions. concrete examples are what employers do when they are made to pay the ofw's us$100 poea processing fee," casino pointed out.

with all the cost-cutting in us hospitals right now...i don't think a lot of them will be willing to shell out this amount up front, even if they'll be doing underpayment or salary deductions.

easier and cleaner to get nurses from other countries without this red tape.

i think the philippine government officials should see the reality in us hospitals before making these...unwise...memos that affect millions of filipino lives.

in my hospital, indian nurses vastly outnumber filipino nurses.

and there are thousands of indian nurses in the pipeline waiting for visas too.

i am referring to nclex and ielts passers.

he added: "the memo also does not state where and how these new fees will be spent by the government. this is apparently another hocus-pocus revenue generation scheme by the arroyo administration at the expense of ofws and their families. it must also be noted that memo is a blanket policy on all ofws in all countries."

exactly.

with the lebanon fiasco a few years ago, we saw what happened to the money collected from ofws.

. . . labor sec arturo brion said . . . "employers will have to pay only the premium of the us$5,000 repatriation bond and performance bond equivalent to three months salary of the worker."

only the premium of $5,000???

with the philippine minimum daily wage at around $7.50, $5,000 is 666.67 days' worth of salary in the philippines.

666.67 days is 1.83 year's salary if the worker works daily, without days off.

if the worker puts in the normal 5 days a week, it's 2.55 year's worth of salary.

(before anybody attacks me for using a philippine reference for foreign income, let me point out that this amount will ultimately come out of the ofw's salary--and will be the amount deducted from the money that could be sent to the philippines.

so yes, $5,000 is 2.55 year's worth of salary.)

and this little guy is using "only" to describe this amount.

i wonder how much this government official is making per day, for him to use the adjective "only" to describe $5,000.