Mandatory SSS fund coverage of overseas workers sought

The Social Security System has asked the government to require registration of overseas Filipino workers for "mandatory coverage as voluntary members of the Fund".

SSS officer-in-charge Horacio Templo said SSS has asked the Labor Department and the Philippine Overseas Workers Administration to require registration and coverage of workers before their departure.

"We are in serious talks with the Department of Labor and Employment and the POEA for the mandatory registration of OFWs before their departure for abroad," Templo said.

"We want our OFWs to be included in the SSS' mantle of social security protection," he added.

The SSS has 515,762 OFW members working in various countries all over the world. About 16,000 are enrolled in the SSS Flexi-fund program, a tax-exempt savings and pension plan, which is on top of the regular social security program offered by the SSS.

Unofficial estimates placed the number of Filipinos in over 190 countries around the world at eight million members, which comprise 20 percent of the total productive labor force of the country. At least 4.8 million are migrant workers who have specific contracts and have no proper documentation.

Templo said SSS is working to forge bilateral social security agreements with more countries that employ a substantial number of Filipino workers in addition to its existing agreements with Austria, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Spain, France, Canada and Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium and South Korea.

"We are also studying the possibility of establishing more foreign branch offices to augment the 14 existing offices to cater to more OFW members," Templo said. - Jasmin R. Uy