DOLE eyes win-win solution to Saudi deployment ban

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will look into a possible win-win solution to the existing ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Saudi Arabia.

“We know why there’s a deployment ban, but at the same time there are those directly affected by the situation. So there should be an arrangement or solution where the previous demands like the payment of overdue wages and benefits are upheld while recognizing the rights and opportunities of our workers seeking employment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said in Filipino during a press briefing on Friday.

Laguesma said he hopes the solution to the Saudi ban will later serve as a template for addressing similar issues with other destination countries.

Since the Department of Migrant Workers is yet to be fully constituted, Laguesma said that he still has the mandate to address the consequences of the deployment ban as DOLE chief.

Before stepping down from his post, former labor secretary Silvestre Bello III directed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to seriously review the existing ban in the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Kingdom.

Bello previously suspended the verification of employment contracts and deployment of newly hired OFWs to Saudi until the 9,000 OFWs finally receive their unpaid salaries. The Saudi government previously agreed to pay the P4.6 billion worth of unpaid wages and benefits to the affected OFWs, who were repatriated in 2016.

Abuses committed against Filipino household workers by a retired Saudi general were one of the reasons for the imposition of the deployment ban in November 2021. – Rudy Santos