Press Release

Make recruitment agencies accountable for stranded wards in Bahrain, Baldoz instructs POEA and POLO

Department of Labor and Employment
Manila
Emailed for posting by Jojo Taduran
December 11, 2014



Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz has instructed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, or the POEA, and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Manama, Bahrain, to go after Philippine licensed recruitment agencies (LRAs) and their counterpart Foreign Recruitment Agencies (FRAs) and make them accountable for the plight of 14  distressed overseas Filipino workers, mostly domestic helpers, who are  sheltered at the Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) in Bahrain.

Fresh from a successful visit to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including Bahrain, Secretary Baldoz said she was appalled at the plight of the 14 domestic workers, nine of whom are all documented and are members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, or OWWA—and five who are undocumented—but have ran away and sought shelter at the FWRC because of abuses of their employers.

“I have talked to these distressed OFWs and their stories are horrible. Some of them were maltreated, suffered from long work hours, underpaid, and physically assaulted, if not sexually harassed.  Their recruiters in the Philippines and their counterparts in Bahrain should be made to account until they are repatriated and returned to their homes,” said Baldoz.

Baldoz said in her instruction is also true to all the other POLOs she had visited.

“It’s not only the POLO in Bahrain that should run after the recruiters—Philippine and foreign. All the POLOs in other countries should do so immediately,” she said.

During her visits to Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Riyadh and Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Baldoz issued instructions to all labor attaches in these countries to be more restrictive in approving job orders for domestic workers. She said part of the performance ratings of POLOs will be on their abilities to lower the deployment of domestic workers and to raise the number of deployment of skilled workers.

“I will be very candid about it. Your stay as labor attaches will depend on your performance in this regard,” said Baldoz, as she reiterated her instruction to fast track the repatriation of all stranded and distressed OFWs in all FWRCs in pursuit of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s directive to transform all POLOs into centers of care and excellence.

Baldoz said the POEA shall already start looking into the records of New Era Placement Agency and its counterpart, Al Ghatan Manpower; Goldmare International Career Corporation (Excel Baroon Manpower); Jainevill Manpower Resources (Al Madar Manpower); Supreme Overseas Manpower Export Specialist, Inc. (Taghreed Manpower); Sunflower Manpower Corporation (Yanba Manpower); LMB Worldwide Services, Inc. (Al Huda Manpower); and Jobstar International Manpower (Tylos Manpower Services) that have deployed the nine of the 14 OFWs to Bahrain.

She also singled out the following foreign placement agencies (PRAs) that have been identified to have recruited the five undocumented workers to that country, but are now awaiting repatriation to the Philippines.

These FRAs are (1) Rumahi Commercial and Industrial Services; (2) Mohammad Al Fardan; (3) Rudaina Ebrahim Alklaifat; and (4) Jamal Ahmed Abdulla Alghareeb.

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Another first for the DOLE

TESDA brings skills assessment and certification to Dubai; Baldoz awards certificates to 102 OFWs

Dubai, UAE—Announcing that it was another first for the DOLE and its attached agency, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, or TESDA, Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday presided over the ‘graduation’ of 102 overseas Filipino workers in this city from merely being OFWs to ‘skill-certified’ OFWs after they have passed the onsite skills assessment conducted by the TESDA.

“This is the very first time that we are bringing the government’s skills assessment and certification to an OFW destination. Dubai is the first and the rest will follow,” said Baldoz who was elated to know that three of the 102 OFWs assessed and certified were presently wards at the Dubai POLO’s Filipino Migrant Workers’ Resource Center.

“It is different when you are certified. That means your skills are at par with global standards and that makes you more employable,” said Baldoz during the awarding of the certificates to the workers.

Baldoz, who is flying back to Manila after an official visit of six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with the UAE as her last stop, reiterated her directive to all POLOs to already standardize all their training programs and align them with training regulations of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, or TESDA, saying this will enable OFWs to compete globally.

“This is the way forward and I expect no less from our POLOs than ensuring their trainees, be they skilled or semi-skilled OFWs, are assessed and certified,” she said.

She explained that one of the purposes of my official visit to all POLOs in GCC member-countries is to bring the good news that in preparing for the ASEAN economic integration in 2015, the Philippine government has been also preparing all Filipino workers to enable them to compete in an era of freer labor mobility.

She reported that one of the projects adopted at the 3^rd Ministerial Meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue last week, which she attended and where she turned over the ADD’s two-year chairmanship to Kuwait, was the Pilot Project on Skill Development, Certification, Upgrading and Recognition.

“This proposed project seeks to pilot a skills development, documentation, and recognition scheme using international standards that will improve the recruitment and job matching practices for select occupations. We are aligning our education and training systems to provide our workers with skills sets needed by the industry and using international standards. This is why our POLOs need not only train and train, but should align these training to global standards,” she explained.

The pilot skills assessment and certification program in Dubai, according to the labor and employment chief, was a rousing success as indicated by the number of excited OFWs who attended the ‘graduation’ceremony. She rejoiced over the overwhelming support of TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva and the OFW community in Dubai to the pilot program.

“Our goal of readying our workers for the ASEAN 2015 integration and making them globally competitive is on track and this skills assessment and certification, which is part of that preparation, answers the need of our OFWs to be certified as to their skills,” Baldoz explained, adding that the TESDA will be replicating the program in other OFW destination.

“No more need for workers who would like their skills assessed and certified to spend time and money and do that in the Philippines. They can use the time when they are on vacation to be with their families,” she said.

The pilot assessment and certification in Dubai covered seven skills qualifications and competencies, namely, (1) Beauty Care, which involved Nail Care and requires a National Certificate II, and Facial Care, Make-up, and Body Scrub, which only required Certificate of Competency; Hairdressing (NC II); Food and Beverage Services (NC II); Massage Therapy (NC II); Pinoy Wellness or Hilot (NC II); Technical Drafting (NC II); and Visual Graphics (NC II).

In Beauty Care (Nail Care), 14 OFWs who were assessed passed and were certified, while 11 OFWs assessed on Beauty Care (Facial Care) passed and were awarded CoCs.

Five of five OFWs assessed in Hairdressing passed and were certified. In Food and Beverage Services, six of 11 OFWs assessed passed and were certified; in Technical Drafting, 31 of 44 OFWs assessed passed and were certified; and 13 out of 14 OFWs assessed for their skills in Visual Graphics passed, with two of them getting a full NC II and 11 awarded CoCs.

In Massage Therapy, 21 out of 23 OFWs who were assessed passed. Only one OFW was assessed in Pinoy Hilot and he passed and was certificated.

Executive Director Patti dela Rama, who led the team of TESDA assessment and certification officials, including the accredited assessors who conducted the assessment, said the passing certification rate in Dubai was 82.92 percent, nearly equal to the national passing certification rate in the Philippines.

“The 102 OFWs who passed the assessment and were certified could themselves become trainers but will undergo another level of assessment and certification,” she said, adding:

“Our next assessment and certification schedule will be in Hong Kong where an estimated 170,000 OFWs work. In fact, we are preparing for it now, in compliance with the directive of Secretary Baldoz.”