Beleaguered OFWs in Libya seek RP gov’t help

By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:10:00 07/06/2009

MANILA, Philippines—An alliance of overseas Filipino workers’ organizations based in the Middle East Sunday called on the government to help 122 OFWs in Libya who have accused their employer of illegally transferring their work site and making them sign new contracts that reduced their wages.

Migrante-Middle East said the Filipinos, mostly construction workers, were deployed to the eastern port city of Benghazi by Aleskan Construction Co.

John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-ME regional coordinator, said the employer forced the OFWs to sign new contracts whose salary provisions differed from the contracts they signed in the Philippines.

Monterona said the OFWs were given a flat rate salary of 250 Libyan dinars (about $312) each per month, instead of the $400 for a skilled worker to $700 for a foreman as promised by their recruiter, Bison Management Corp.-Philippines. The US dollar is roughly equivalent to 1.25 Libyan dinars.

“We have called our agency in the Philippines but they can’t do anything. We don’t want our situation to get more problematic by this revelation. We also want Libya to continue being a nice destination for OFWs. We wish we could still fulfill our promise to give a better life to our families. We have sacrificed a lot for them,” the OFWs said in an eight-page letter, a copy of which was provided to the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Monterona.

The OFWs were originally hired by a firm named Ersaa to work for its Bab Tarablus project in the Libyan capital Tripoli. After being deployed by batches in April, they were sent to Aleskan in Benghazi, a thousand kilometers from Tripoli.

The OFWs, in their letter to Migrante-ME dated June 23, also complained that they were given no overtime pay, placed in unsanitary accommodations, and experienced working conditions without safety equipment and health care.

“They said they don’t have a company nurse or medical staff to look after their health and that some of the medicines given to their sick co-workers had expired,” Monterona, who is based in Saudi Arabia, said in a statement e-mailed to the Inquirer.

“Some of their sick companions were forced to seek help from the local Filipino community for medical care and attention which their company failed to provide,” Monterona said.

The OFWs cited the case of a worker who was confined at a hospital in Benghazi and was visited once by an official from the Philippine Embassy. At least nine of their colleagues ran away, unable to bear the poor working conditions, they said.