By Vir B. Lumicao
A Hong Kong recruitment agency is in deeper
trouble as more Filipino domestic workers have emerged in recent weeks
complaining against its alleged collection of excessive placement fees which
they were made to pay by borrowing from a lending company.
The Philippine Overseas
Labor Office says it has endorsed the complaints of seven helpers against Best
Choice Employment Centre Co Ltd to Hong Kong’s Labour Department for
“appropriate action and assistance”.
POLO has also referred
the cases to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for the
suspension or cancellation of the agency’s accreditation.
In the meantime, Acting
Labor Attache Ma. Nena German said she has also suspended the verification of
all documents submitted to POLO by Best Choice.
The new cases were
reported about a month after The SUN reported the case of Filipina helper,
Dexter Vargas, who filed a complaint against Best Choice with Labour’s
Employment Agencies Administration for allegedly charging $9,000 in placement
fees.
Hong Kong’s laws allow
the collection of only 10% of the domestic worker’s first monthly salary.
Vargas alleged that the
agency forced her to borrow money from a lending firm upon her arrival in Hong
Kong on Aug 23 so she could pay the fee. It was the same modus allegedly used
by the agency in exacting illegal fees from the latest batch of complainants,
although the amounts they were forced to borrow from the lending firm varied.
On Feb 11, German
endorsed to both the EAA and POEA a complaint filed by Jacquiline G. Bernardo,
who alleged that the agency charged her $10,600 which she was made to pay upon
her arrival by taking out a loan from the lending company.
Bernardo had sought
help from The SUN and POLO on the night of Feb. 4 so she could leave her
employer’s house after terminating their contract. Bernardo said she did not
wish to go with the agency’s representative who had been called by her employer
to fetch her.
On Feb 14, six other
helpers went to POLO and filed their complaints against Best Choice. They were
Wong Rachel l C. Frio, Noralyn A. Ternate, Monaliza B. Adarayan, Gladys Mae G.
Villegas, Mary Ann J. Buna and Mariel Joy G. Juan.
Asked what action POLO
could take against erring agencies aside from referring cases to to POEA, she
replied: “Cancellation of accreditation is within the jurisdiction of POEA. We
stop processing, hindi na sila makakapag-process. So it has also the same
effect as accreditation being cancelled.”
