Saudi unified deal deferred until 'consensus' reached--POEA

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: September 03, 2008

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has confirmed the deferment of the implementation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's so-called unified contract scheme, its top official has said.

POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz, however, clarified that the deferment was not only for the duration of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but until the Philippines and Saudi Arabia could discuss the rule and "reach a consensus" on what to do with it.

She said the labor department was pushing for its inclusion in the agenda of the Philippine-Saudi joint committee meeting in October to be hosted by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

The new rule, which was supposed to be implemented September 1, was opposed by various groups because this would allow contract substitution.

Among those that opposed the scheme were the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc., Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Senate President Manuel Villar.

The recruiters' group had asked Romulo, Roque, and Villar for help in stopping the implementation of the new rule, complaining about the lack of consultation.

Emmanuel Geslani, recruitment consultant, said the industry welcomed the deferment of the rule's implementation as this would "allow bilateral talks between the [Philippine] Department of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

He said Labor Secretary Roque should, in these talks, push for the scrapping of the scheme as this would result in "anomalous and unfair contracts for OFWs and the takeover of Arab-owned agencies of the industry."

In his letter to Ambassador Mohammed Ameen Mohammed Wali, Villar appealed for the recruitment industry and the OFWs. He said the scheme would make Saudi recruiters third-party visa facilitators, effectively impairing the ability of Filipino recruiters to directly process their recruits' visas.

The unified contract rule will require all Saudi-bound Filipino workers to go through Saudi-based recruitment agencies affiliated with the Saudi National Recruitment Committee (Sanarcom). It indicates that the employer-employee relationship between the Saudi employer and the
OFW will be governed by the contract presented by the Sanarcom member-agency.

This, Philippine-based recruiters and migrants workers groups said, would be tantamount to allowing contract substitution; Philippine rules require that work contracts are finalized before the OFW leaves for work abroad.

Villar said this Sanarcom contract was not approved by the POEA and recognized by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office.

"It may have no good effect but to promote the business motive of some recruiters in the agreement. It will only have the power to swing all contracts to dummy agencies here that are owned by Sanarcom agencies," he said in his letter to Ambassador Wali, quoting former POEA board member Exequiel Alunen.