The OFW's global competitive advantage

There is hardly any country in the world today without a Filipino worker, nor any ocean-going vessel plying in all the oceans without a Filipino seafarer. There are 11 million Filipinos in more than 200 countries in Asia, the Americas, Europe, the South Pacific Rim and even in Africa. Although we are no longer the market leader today, unlike during the 70s and the 80s, our OFWs are still a formidable force that can not be easily dislodged in the niche we have carved for our Filipino migrant workers.

Our emerging competitors are Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Shri Lanka, Vietnam and Thailand. But as things go these days, the OFWs will remain a very strong player in the global labor markets. The interesting issue to look into is, what is the Filipino workers’ competitive advantage, given the very competitive labor market situations today. There are many but we shall focus only on the critical few.

Just because we are no longer the world’s labor market leader today is not necessarily a bad news for our country. Perhaps, we are in this present position because our policy-makers and labor administrators did it on purpose. Although they may appear reluctant to declare it explicitly, or upfront, because it may not be politically correct to do so, but all the policies and laws that have been promulgated in the last few years are apparently geared at focusing on quality human resources to be deployed abroad.

It shows that we are willing to give up our market share in the vulnerable sectors, commonly called the 5 Ds (dirty, difficult, dangerous, deceptive and degrading) jobs, and aim only for quality jobs. A good example of this is the policy on domestic helpers, or household service workers. The POEA- mandated minimum salary is US$ 400. Although this policy is more honored in its breach than in compliance, at least,we have raised the bar of labor standards. And we have taken a position to protect our human capital.

Veering away from the domestic helpers, which are the most vulnerable OFWs in the world today, we should now be focusing our marketing efforts on the deployment of highly-skilled and skilled workers, like engineers, seafarers, doctors, nurses, and health service providers. As a Labor Attaché, in all the fora and assemblies where I have been invited to speak, I always positioned our OFWs as the top of the line among the foreign workers in the world. In fact, I always use the BMW brand as marketing identity for OFWs. ‘’B’’ means Brainpower. ‘’M’’ means Multi-skills. ‘’W’ means ‘’ World Class’’ quality of services.

With due respect to other nationals, I strongly believe that in most cases, the Filipinos have superior brainpower and better quality of thinking and analytical skills, compared to other foreign workers. The Filipinos are multi-skilled.They are technology savvy. Even our domestic helpers use computers and other modern gadgets. They have excellent communication skills and social graces. Without fear of any contradiction, I submit that the OFWs have world class quality of services. The Filipinos can win any competition, any contest, any test of competence and skills, with very few exceptions.

And so, the question that begs to be asked is: If the OFW’s are really that good, why are we losing market shares? Why are we not the world’s market leader anymore? The answers are three-fold.

First, compared to competition, the Filipino labor is much more expensive than other foreign workers, in terms of wages, benefits and cost of deployment. Employers are after lower cost.

Second, the documentation and deployment procedures are more bureaucratic, circuitous, stringent and expensive insofar as the Filipino workers are concerned. We don’t have a one-stop processing system, instead of too many agencies involved in different locations and at time, with varying standards.

Third, our Labor Attachés and welfare Officers are very serious in enforcing Labor Laws, contracts and conventions. We go after employers, brokers and recruiters who violate labor standards as provided by law and contracts. Furthermore, the OFWs are the most assertive foreign workers, always standing up for their rights, always filing cases, at times, with the aid of NGOs. We like these attitude. The employers do not like these, however.

The question therefore that requires the decision of our policy-makers is: Are we willing to lose more market shares because of our insistence on our very high labor standards and very strict deployment procedures? Which is more important to our country, to deploy more workers abroad or to give up labor markets that do not provide for adequate safety nets for OFWs?

I would rather see our workers staying here than insist on penetrating labor markets that guarantee disillusionment, disease, disability and even death. It is better to be unemployed than dead. If unemployed, we can still seek other options. There are no other options after death.

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