RECRUITMENT industry sources said on Thursday that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) governing board has approved a deployment ban on household workers to Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
However, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said she is not aware of the POEA resolution. “We have to wait because I still have no information on the decision, but if that is true, the effect will be a household service workers [HSWs] deployment ban.”
Baldoz said that the Department of Foreign Affairs earlier recommended the banning of the deloyment of workers to the three territories for the inability of their governments to comply with Section 3 of Republic Act (RA) 10022.
A source who declined to be identified because of lack of authority to speak of the matter, also said, “According to reliable sources within the recruitment industry the POEA board in it is last meeting approved the finding of the DFA that the three Middle East countries are not compliant with labor and international laws and thus deploying domestic under Section 3 of RA10022 would be in violation of the said provision.”
The source also opined that once the ruling is implemented, deployment of house help is expected to decrease by 50 percent.
The POEA has earlier deferred authorized deployment of HSWs to the three territories until they meet the requirements of Republic Act 10022.
Section 3 of the amended Migrant Workers Act states that the Philippine government will only allow deployment if the host country “has existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of workers, is a signatory to and or a ratifier of multilateral conventions, declarations or resolutions relating to the protection of workers, and has concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement with the government on the protection of the rights of Filipino workers.”
Record shows that in 2010, 46 percent or 44,675 of the 96,583 house help in the Middle East are employed in the territories.
Hong Kong has the most number of Filipino househelp, followed by Kuwait with 21,554, UAE third with 13,184, and Qatar on fifth spot with 9,937 household workers.
