How recruitment agencies exploit nurses

For our topic tonight on Straight from the Sky, we ask the very poignant questions: How did the history of Information Technology come to Cebu? Where are we today and what does the future holds for the IT Industry? When we talk about the IT industry, you cannot but help notice that Asia Town I.T. Park has become one of Cebu’s growth centers, thanks to the presence of many Call Centers, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies, software development and many other related companies that have set up shop at the IT Park thus creating a bustling economy within the Cebu economy.

With us tonight is our special guest Mr. Boni Belen of the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (CEDFIT). He will bring us down memory lane on how all this technology began in Cebu.  He will also tell us what Cebu needs to do in order to match our school graduates to the existing job market.

Today not all our school graduates can be qualified to handle a job in the IT Industry. This is due to certain problems with our curriculum, which CEDFIT is trying to address. Watch this show with Mr. Boni Belen at 8:00 pm on SkyCable’s channel 15 tonight so you will know more about Cebu’s not-so-secret advantage in this globalized world.

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Talking about the phenomenal growth in the IT Industry gives us hope that despite the global economic downturn for this year, there really is a lot of hope that we can bring jobs to our students right here at home so they won’t really have to leave home, like most Filipinos have to do. The growth of IT Industry hasn’t dissipated. It is considered a “sunrise” industry as it is still growing by leaps and bounds. Cebu is lucky to have the manpower to satisfy the global IT demand. The only problem is matching the students to the jobs that are available out there just waiting to be filled.

In the medical world, some 1,513 new doctors will be taking their oaths some Sept.14, which only means that despite the horror stories that many of our medical institutions are seriously lacking in doctors, we have more than enough doctors to fill all the vacancies. Hospitals or clinic that are sorely lacking in medical staff are those that can be found in far-flung areas.

Talking about medical staff, this means nurses! It’s about time that we start realizing that our schools and universities are churning out more nurses than we can send abroad. Thanks to what they call “Retrogression” in the United States, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) have apparently stopped processing applicants for nurses. This has created a huge backlog of nurses who have completed all the requirements to be able to work in US hospitals. Because of this retrogression, nurses are stuck in Cebu and most are now working in local hospitals just to gain experience. Many others are now working in the IT Industry because they need to help their parents who spent a great deal of money on their education.

Last week, I came across a one-page ad of American recruitment companies who hire Filipino nurses for jobs abroad. My daughter Katrina who has completed all her requirements to work abroad checked out these recruitment agencies. When she showed me their contract, I got furious! It reminded me of the Hare-Haws Cutting Law, that one-sided law that allowed Americans to exploit our mineral resources. Today, you can read that the contracts for all US recruitment agencies that are so one-sided, it is truly exploitative. I’m sure you’re interested to know why this is so.

First of all, these companies lock you for a three-year job, meaning once you sign their contract, you can no longer sign another contract with another recruitment agency. This would be acceptable except that, there is no promise by the recruiter that you would land a job within those three years! Thanks again to retrogression! A contract without a job?

Worse of all, if and when you sign a contract with them, you would end up signing a separate paper where you agree to loan US$20,000 or US$25,000 dollars to the agency because that’s supposed to pay for the cost of getting you a job in the US including housing and living allowances. But in case they find a job for you and you get fired in the process, you will have to pay them your “loan”. What if your boss tried to sexually harass you and if you refused, you get fired? Now your parents have to pay your loan! If you ask me, this is exploiting Filipino nurses. I would like to know whether the Philippine government would allow this to happen to Pinoys?