BY DANIE MAE FAJARDO-DELA CRUZ
MANILA – The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has simplified the rules for the recruitment and employment of land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
This is one of the directives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year, according to Secretary Susan Ople.
Under the principle of social dialog and tripartism, extensive consultations with all stakeholders were done to come up with the new simplified rules.
“Ito ay alinsunod sa atas ng ating mahal na Pangulo, at patunay ng kanyang malasakit at kalinga sa ating mga OFW,” said Ople.
Included in the new rules were the following:
* licensed recruitment agencies must employ a full-time and trained Welfare Desk Officer (WEDO) what will monitor and assist in the resolution of workers’ problems and complaints in their job site
* regulation of accommodations of recruitment agencies for its workers; recruitment agencies must inform DMW about the location and capacity of these accommodations
“This is significant because there was no way for the government to know where these accommodations are and how conducive its facilities are for our workers,” said Ople.
DMW also standardized the penalty structure for private recruitment agencies for offenses such as involvement in corruption activity, and any conduct of illegal recruitment and trafficking in persons.
For serious offenses, the recruitment agency faces cancellation of its license, while less serious offenses will result in suspension of six months to one year.
Agencies with light offenses, meanwhile, will face suspensions of one to six months.
“Dahil mas simple ang rules, mas malinaw din ang dapat gawin at sundin ng bawat licensed recruitment agency,” said Ople.
She warned the agencies against committing “cardinal sins” such as acts of graft and corruption like bribing DMW officials and personnel as well as recruiting and deploying minors and underaged workers.
Erring recruitment agencies risk the cancellation their licenses.
“Ayusin ang pakikitungo sa ating mga manggagawa at sa kanilang mga employers,” Ople said.
The new DMW rules also extended the validity period of provisional licenses of recruitment agencies from two years to three years, while the validity of a regular license has been extended to six years from the previous four-year period.
The escrow deposit of recruitment agencies has also been increased from P1 million to P1.5 million to expand their capability to cover claims of OFWs over employment contract violations.
One Person Corporations (OPC) are now allowed to engage in overseas recruitment and employment.
The DMW has also shortened its process-cycle time from 15 days to seven to 10 days on onsite accreditation and verification in its Migrant Workers Offices overseas.
“This new set of rights-based rules will ensure better protection and empowerment of our OFWs,” Ople said./PN
