THE recruitment industry on Sunday appealed to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to resolve the temporary deployment ban to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is now affecting 10,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The temporary deployment ban to Saudi Arabia—imposed over the unpaid wages to 9,000 workers that were promised to be paid by the Saudi government—is affecting 10,000 OFWs scheduled for travel to the kingdom, recruitment and migration expert Manny Geslani said in a statement at the weekend.
“The order stopped the deployment of construction workers for new projects in Saudi Arabia and also thousands of skilled workers ordered by Mega Recruitment Companies that farm out the workers to numerous offices, establishments, hotels, department stores and employers,” said Geslani.
In 2020, Geslani said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III instructed the Philippine Labor Attaches in Saudi Arabia to stop the verification of contracts submitted by construction companies and mega recruitment companies which resulted in the non-deployment of over 5,000 workers up to this date.
According to Geslani, Bello had repeatedly warned he will push for a deployment ban on Saudi Arabia if the government refuses to settle the billions of pesos worth of unpaid wages and benefits for repatriated Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2016.
Bello said the Middle Eastern country still has not paid the claims of thousands of OFWs repatriated in 2016 after their employers, mostly giant construction companies, folded up in 2014 due to the downfall of crude oil prices to $40 dollars a barrel. Subsequently, the Saudi economy went flat and the construction companies were not paid by the government.
On November 28, 2021, Geslani said Bello ordered anew the Labor Attaches in Saudi Arabia to stop the verification of new contracts for Household Service Workers for Saudi Arabia while a technical working group is crafting new verification rules for the deployment of HSWs, resulting in a de facto ban for domestic workers in the largest market for HSWs in the Middle East.
In separate messages, DOLE’s International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) Director Alice Visperas and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Bernard P. Olalia confirmed that there are still restrictions on the deployment of OFWs, including new hires among domestic workers to Saudi Arabia.
“The latest suspension of verification contracts for new Household service workers (HSW) for Saudi Arabia has impacted gravely on the business of industry players in the HSW sector since there is monthly deployment of 1,500 domestic workers to the Kingdom while related to the unpaid wages being collected by Secretary Bello,” Geslani added.
Geslani said the foreign recruitment agencies and employers in the Kingdom are now demanding refunds from the private recruitment agencies for the advances paid to the local agencies to the mobilization and maintenance of the workers, who have been idle, staying in accommodations provided by the agencies.
According to Geslani, Bello has attended the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, a forum for talks and cooperation between Asian Countries of labor origin and destination.
Before the dialogue, Geslani said Bello was invited by Al-Rajhi for a private meeting where the KSA labor executive appealed for the lifting of the suspension on Arab mega recruitment agencies which were responsible for the deployment of OFWs whose salaries and benefits remained unpaid.
“Bello said he assured Al-Rajhi the Philippines would lift the deployment ban in exchange for the payment of salaries of the OFWs,” added Geslani.
“Repatriated by the government in 2016, the unpaid OFWs, through the help of state lawyers, won the case over their unsettled pay in KSA,” he said.
“Bello was optimistic that by December of 2021, the unpaid claims of $4.6 billion, which has ballooned to $5 billion, [would be paid], however up to this day there is no sign that the Saudi government will push through the payments,” said Geslani.