Spain starts hiring RP health workers

MADRID — The Spanish government will allow more Filipino professionals to avail themselves of job opportunities in this country, beginning with 40 health workers whose performance and commitment to their contracts will serve as tests on whether or not it hires more Filipinos.

The signing will coincide with President Arroyo’s official visit here beginning today. She is scheduled to hold talks with Spanish businessmen to encourage them to make investments in tourism, information and communication technology and alternative fuel development.

Mrs. Arroyo pushed for the entry of more Filipinos in Spain as she noted that most Filipino workers here were domestic helpers while other nationalities managed to get into other sectors, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said. "So this will be a very good outcome of her visit here."

Mrs. Arroyo and her family took a two-day break in Santiago de Compostela after her official visit to Rome and the Vatican.

Trade Secretary Peter Favila made a presentation before Spanish businessmen while Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz met with Spanish security officials to discuss counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.

Spanish officials earlier said their government was also ready to help the Philippines market itself not only to Spanish, but to other European tourists as well.

Shortly after her arrival here, Mrs. Arroyo will visit the Congreso de los Diputados (Congress of Deputies and Senate of Spain) and the Ayuntamiento (City Hall) de Madrid to meet with Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon.

Mrs. Arroyo will then offer a wreath at the Rizal monument along one of Madrid’s major thoroughfares, Avenida de las Islas Filipinas. The monument, a replica of the monument in Rizal Park, was built in 1996 in commemoration of Rizal’s 100th death centenary.

Mrs. Arroyo will be guest of honor at a Filipiniana exhibit here and is scheduled to meet with the local Filipino community.

She will then have a luncheon meeting with officers and members of the Confederacion Española de Organizaciones Empresariales, a Spanish business organization.

Highlighting Mrs. Arroyo’s itinerary is her meeting with King Juan Carlos I. She will also have talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

She will likewise attend the dinner hosted in her honor by Zapatero.

Mrs. Arroyo will receive several callers and visitors who will pay a separate courtesy call on her. They are former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, the Union Fenosa/Soluziona, Partido Popular president Mariano Rajoy, and Ruiz Mateos, who is interested in investing in the Philippines.

Mrs. Arroyo’s visit to Spain will be capped by a luncheon meeting with King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia.

She will also attend a Hispano-Filipino Friendship Day reception and leave on July 1 for Manila.

Mrs. Arroyo’s delegation will also meet with their Spanish counterparts.

Sto. Tomas said she would sign here today a memorandum of agreement with her counterpart, Spanish Labor Minister Jesus Calderal, to allow the entry of up to 200,000 Filipinos to Spain once the Spanish government and employers have been "impressed" by their skills and "loyalty."

"The only barrier they cited is the language. That is why we encouraged the first 40 workers to study Spanish," Sto. Tomas said.

Sixty more workers will be coming here in August and another 60 in September to complete the first batch of Filipino nurses and caregivers to penetrate the health sector.

"If all turns well, our expectation is that in the next two years, 100,000 to 200,000 of our countrymen can get in," Sto. Tomas said.

The second batch of workers will enter the hotel and restaurant industry; the third in construction; and the fourth in manufacturing and mining.

"It is our hope that after this experimental period, since they call this a pilot project, we can already have a bilateral agreement next year," Sto. Tomas said.

Sto. Tomas said it would be the first extensive labor accord with Spain that would open all sectors and industries to Filipino workers.

"Everything depends on how good the next six months are going to be in terms of how well our people perform on their contracts," Sto. Tomas said.

Sto. Tomas met with the Spanish employers and the first Filipino workers here to explain to them the need to do well and to fulfill their one-year contracts.

Spain has had problems with most foreign workers abandoning their contracts to seek other employment, she said.

"The employers also said the Filipino workers should be able to speak Spanish, especially those in the health sector because they should be able to communicate with the patients that are old and sickly," she said.

Sto. Tomas said the workers would get up to 1,400 euros monthly salary in 7,000 nursing homes alone in this country and 700 more would be built.

The first 40 Filipino workers were hired by a set of 30 nursing homes.

Sto. Tomas said she was happy that Filipino professionals would be able to penetrate the Spanish job market because the labor laws are similar to the Philippines’, unlike other countries.

"The basis of their laws is the same as ours so I don’t expect to have many problems," she said.

As regards nurses and caregivers, Sto. Tomas said she expected little trouble getting licenses because workers could secure them through evaluation of their skills and performance, no longer through board examinations.

She said Filipinos should earn the trust and confidence of Spaniards since a lot of employment opportunities would then be opened to them.

"I told them to just fulfill their contracts and go wherever you want to go afterwards. They are just an advance party here and the future employment of other Filipinos lie in their hands," Sto. Tomas said.

Sto. Tomas said despite the long history of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Spain, it was only now that a labor agreement was being considered.

"The Filipino workers will get free housing, cellular phones, free tours during orientation and many other privileges," she said.

The Spanish government, she said, was very hopeful that Filipinos would do well as only the Philippines got a managed migration system.

There are only 40,000 Filipinos in Spain, most of whom have already acquired Spanish citizenship.