OFWs seek Obama's help in discrimination case

MANILA, Philippines –  Some 2,300 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are seeking the intercession of US President Barack Obama in their 28-year-old discrimination suit against an American employer.

Members of the group, under the Bagong Bayani Organization, sued their employer Kellog-Brown & Root for violation of US labor standards and non-payment of wages and employment benefits during their overseas employment in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The group also bewailed the alleged discrimination of their employer against Filipino workers in the payment of retirement and pension, healthcare, death benefits, life insurance and compensation for asbestosis, an illness they developed as a result of their work.

The National Labor Relations Commission has awarded the group compensation claims of $609 million plus 12 percent interest. However, the group has yet to receive the money.

The OFWs said they were assured in a letter dated Feb. 7, 2003 by Kellog-Brown & Root’s law firm, Godwin & Gruber, that it will abide by the final and executory judgment of the Philippine Supreme Court.

On Dec. 6, 2010, the group filed an urgent motion for immediate decision at the Supreme Court.

The OFWs fear their compensation claim will be jeopardized by a series of settlements paid by Kellog-Brown & Root, coupled with the filing of bribery charges by the Nigerian government against US Vice President Richard Cheney, who was then the top executive of the Halliburton group, which owns the company.