Recruiters should fulfill their obligations

The phenomenal Philippine economic growth has been driven principally by the more than twenty-four billion US dollars annually, that our more than twelve million Filipinos abroad are remitting regularly to our country, thereby infusing our economy with much foreign exchange. This substantial inflow of money drives consumer spending and gives impetus to the growth of micro and small enterprises around the country. The biggest beneficiaries of these robust financial condition are the taipans who make a killing in their giant malls, the banks and the financial intermediaries that facilitate the remittance processes and of course the recruiters who collect a lot of money both from the foreign employers and from our migrant workers.

Given all these, our government and our businessmen, especially those who make millions every month such as the recruiters should fulfill their ends of the deal. They have to honor their obligations, and not abandon our modern heroes, after milking them with outrageous placement fees. And yet, a lot of empirical data and anecdotal evidence do indicate that most of the recruitment agencies are wanting in needed services to the OFWs. No less than the Supreme Court, in a decision promulgated on June 2, 2014, put recruiters to task for reneging on their legal duties and their contractual obligations. In the case of MCMN (not named to protect its reputation), et al versus J L Olarte, G R 169247, the High Tribunal bewailed an agency's lack of mindfulness of the welfare of an OW that it deployed.

Ms. Olarte was deployed by that agency to work as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia. Upon arrival there, she was surprised to discover that she had to take care of four very young children of her Arab master, one of whom was suffering from a serious disability. This was never disclosed to her by the recruiter earlier. Nonetheless, she served the master but she was never paid her salary after working for almost a year. Because of the very harsh working conditions, she suffered from a very debilitating sickness that landed her in hospital and compelled her to be operated on. Her employer forced her to work and did not allow her to go home despite her persistent plea. The agency never gave her aid. It was only because of the help of the embassy and DOLE personnel that she was repatriated a year after. She sued the recruiter upon arriving home.

The Labor Arbiter, the NLRC, the Court of Appeals and eventually the Supreme Court all agreed to award Olarte 2,200 US dollars for unpaid salaries. And because of the mental anguish that she experienced, including serious anxieties, wounded feelings, and physical as well as psychological sufferings, Olarte was awarded moral damages of  one hundred pesos. To discourage others from subjecting OFWs to such traumatic ordeal, the Court also awarded her exemplary damages of P50,000. Attorney's fees were also granted. It is not the money that matters most, however, but the sense of outrage that the labor tribunals and the courts have expressed, given the agency's alleged lack of concern for the OFW. It is indeed disappointing, to say the least, to see our migrant workers suffer a lot and still being left unaided by their agencies.

The Court was also aghast at the recruiters' attempt to escape liability by presenting flip-flopping legal theories and defenses, and technical maneuvers. It was the vacillating stories of the recruiters that caused the downfall of the recruiters' vain attempt to evade liability. Said the Court: It is worth stating that recruitment agencies should be mindful that it is part of their bounden duty to protect the welfare of the Filipino workers that they sent abroad, and from whom they take their profit. They should, in conscience, not add to the misery of maltreated and abused Filipino workers by denying them the repatriation to which they are entitled. They should be the first to ensure the welfare of the very people upon whose patronage their industry thrives. The high Court stressed that repatriation is the primary obligation of the recruiters, not of the government.

As a former Labor Attache to three labor-receiving countries, for ten years, and as a former DOLE Undersecretary for Workers' Protection, this writer joins the Supreme Court in putting the agencies to task. And I laud Mayor Mike Rama of Cebu City for launching a comprehensive package of services to the OFWs from this premier city. Other LGUs and NGOs should join hands in promoting the rights, welfare and benefits of heroic Filipinos who keep the economy going. And recruitment agencies should contribute their share in the service to the migrant workers and their families. It is both good business sense and a positive karma for recruiters to come out and prove to all and sundry, that they are not just in it for the money. They should serve the OFWs well because these are the very people who are making them prosperous.