MANILA, Philippines — Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople wants to iron out guidelines on employment safety and resolve issues involving unpaid workers before deployment to Saudi Arabia is allowed again.
Ople said she tapped Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo to discuss how they can diplomatically go about the deployment issue. She said she wants to maintain “good ties” with the Kingdom.
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“I really want to have bilateral talks but these would be focused on workers’ welfare and protection in general,” Ople said in a mix of English and Filipino during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay virtual forum on Wednesday.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) temporarily stopped verifying of employment contracts and suspended deployment to Saudi Arabia last year after employment issues compounded, with some 11,000 workers left with unpaid backwages at construction agencies.
There were also issues on possibly risking domestic helpers to abusive employers.
“‘Yun daw nangyayari na ‘yung insidente, na actually kami yung nag report sa DOLE noon, na meron Saudi general na every year nakakakuha ng domestic worker maski merong pattern of abuse so ‘yun ‘yung mga kailangan gamutin,” Ople said.
(There is this incident, that it was us who actually reported the issue to DOLE, that there’s a Saudi general who gets to hire a domestic worker every year even if they have a pattern of abuse so that’s what we are planning to fix.)
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma also urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to look into the situation because the pause in deployment has affected many OFWs who were already set to leave the country.
Department of Migrant Workers’ Ople emphasized that they are currently in talks with their stakeholders for the creation of new rules to prevent situations like this in the future. She said those with “vulnerable occupations” will have their own set of guidelines.
“Ang mensahe, recruitment agency ka man o foreign employer ka man o foreign recruitment agency ka man, shared ang responsibility [over the welfare of worker],” Ople said.
(The message there is — where you are a local recruitment agency or a foreign employer or recruitment agency, we all have a shared responsibility over the welfare of the worker.) — Kaycee Valmonte