foreign employers who want to hire filipino workers without using the services of local recruitment agencies must obtain approval from the department of labor and employment, the philippine overseas employment administration governing board has ruled.
in a board resolution, the poea board repealed a section of the rules covering the recruitment of land-based overseas workers, which allowed the registration with the poea of "name hires" as an exemption from the ban on direct hiring.
"name hires" refer to workers who obtain employment on their own without the participation of recruitment agencies.
registration with the poea gives overseas workers such benefits as insurance and health care, education and training, family welfare services as well as protection and assistance in their place of work.
the labor code prohibits an employer from hiring filipino workers for overseas employment, except through the boards (the poea) or entities authorized by the secretary of labor.
. . .
foreign employers who are accredited with private recruitment agencies are not allowed to directly hire filipino workers, according to poea administrator rosalinda dimapilis-baldoz.
the new measure will cover directly hired ofws like nurses.
this board resolution sounds like it was tailor-made for nurses.
around 2 years ago, there were news articles about the philippine government complaining about direct hires--they don't go through the poea, thus the philippine government "loses" $88 million dollars a year. the plan at that time was to charge $10,000 to $20,000 per nurse--if i recall correctly.
(i can't find the specific article right now, there are lots of dead links from philippine news websites.)
i guess this action is meant to "plug the hole."
now there's another road block for us hospitals to hire from the philippines.
for a us hospital to go to the philippines for a hiring seminar, it has to pay a fee.
now for every hire, there is the implied additional fee for "such benefits as insurance and health care, education and training, family welfare services as well as protection and assistance in their place of work."
this would also be a road block for those thinking of the adjustment of status route.
add the movement to shut down an agency--which could dampen hiring by other agencies...and there's fewer incentive to hire philippine nurses.
so what's left?
1. hardy agencies willing to risk petitioning for filipino rns who have the right to jump ship anytime.
2. us hospitals who will still hire directly in spite of the added fees.
3. adjustment of status questionable: this depends on the implementing rules from the poea. if approval is to be secured prior to leaving the philippines, then there's the intent to migrate right there--automatic denial. if it's after leaving the philippines, the question is who pays for implied fee.
with the cost-cutting going on in some us hospitals, they might not be able to pay the additional fee.
the other option is to get the fee from the nurse via salary deduction.
$10,000 is around 2 1/2 months net pay of a nurse.
$4,000 a month is not a lot because the cost of living in the us is higher. rent is almost 1/3 of the monthly salary.
i don't know what the philippine government is doing.
first it required training for "super maids" who supposedly know cpr, then doubled their salary from $200 to $400 a month...and hiring immediately went down.
now the philippine government is doing the same thing to nurses, adding a huge fee.
i would like to point out that us hospitals had been getting nurses from a lot of other countries aside from the philippines.
it is a literal melting pot in us hospitals.
i just hope this policy does not shut out philippine nurses from us hospitals.
hundreds of thousands of filipino nurses with all the certificates and licenses...with nowhere to go to.
