DOLE belittles hiring limits of OFWs in Middle East

The Department of Labor and Employment remained unperturbed by reports that five Arab countries are set to limit the hiring of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said several Arab nations have long been enforcing policies prioritizing the hiring of local workers and restricting the employment of foreign workers, including OFWs.

"Saudi Arabia, Oman and several other countries in the Middle East have been enforcing localization policies since 1982 and yet we continue to deploy thousands of OFWs up to this time," Sto. Tomas said.

In fact, Sto. Tomas said, Saudi Arabia remains the country’s biggest labor export market with an estimated 915,000 OFWs currently employed there.

She made the remark to belie published reports that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain had agreed to restrict the hiring of foreign workers during the Gulf Coordinating Council meeting last December.

"We have not received any official notification from our labor attachés regarding such an agreement. It’s the first time that I have heard of it," Sto. Tomas said.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has even been processing the papers of OFWs who have been hired to work in the five Arab nations.

She said the Philippine government will not likely send any letter of appeal to the five Arab countries since the government has not received notice of the supposedly new policy.

"We will plan our action from that point but as of now we have not received any official notice about such a policy," she added.

Meanwhile, the country’s overseas employment suffered a setback as a Quezon City court ordered an indefinite suspension in the deployment of Filipino overseas artists.

POEA chief Rosalinda Baldoz said the agency was forced to stop the deployment of OPAs because of the restraining order issued by Quezon City regional trial court Judge Lucas Bersamin.

"We have no other choice but to stop working on the applications as well as testing and certification of OPAs," Baldoz said, adding the suspension would adversely affect entertainers who are awaiting deployment.

Based on POEA records, there are 60,000 pending applications for deployment. The government agency is processing 500 OPA applications daily.

Baldoz noted that Bersamin issued the restraining orders on two DOLE and POEA circulars in a bid to stay the implementation of two DOLE circulars which sought to tighten the issuance of certificates.

Under DOLE Circular Nos. 10 and 15, only licensed agencies are allowed to obtain the OPAs’ certificate of eligibility and to attend to their deployment requirements.

But the court issued a restraining order upon the petition filed by a group of training center owners and talent managers who are strongly protesting the new guidelines.

In their petition for an injunction, the group claimed that the new regulation would remove the OPA training market and cause harm to their business.

The court thus directed Sto. Tomas and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director general Lucita Lazo to explain their positions.

TESDA is in charge of auditioning OPAs, certifying their competence and issuing the artist record book (ARB).

DOLE claimed the new regulation seeks to improve the protection to OPAs and curb corruption in the entertainment industry.