By Vir B. Lumicao
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| Metro Pinoy's Miranda also says POEA should have explained the policy shift to agencies |
An employment agency owner in Hong Kong says the Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority should exclusively handle the
training of Filipino domestic helpers before they go abroad to avoid their
being exploited by greedy operators.
Josephine Miranda of Metro Pinoy Enterprise also said the controversy
over mandatory training of outbound FDHs stemmed from the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration’s failure to tell recruiters early on that the practice
was illegal.
As a result, confusion arose among employment agencies after
Labor Attaché Melchor Dizon said last month that it is illegal to require FDWs
to train before they can go abroad, said the agency owner whose office is in
North Point.
Miranda said the agencies in the Philippines might not have
been aware previously that training fees are illegal because POEA did not
implement the 2016 rules, so everybody was charging from Php30,000 to a
whopping Php100,000 for training.
“Ang alam ko diyan kasi noon, kapag pumunta kayo sa Tesda,
they will tell you to go to their training school or a Tesda-accredited
training center,” Miranda said on Dec 11. (What I know is that before, if you
went to Tesda, they will tell you to go to their training school or a
Tesda-accredited training center).
She recalled recruitment agencies began requiring domestic
helper-applicants to go through training after Tesda made NC2 assessment and
certification mandatory for various categories of workers going overseas.
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| Dizon speaking in Polo before an audience led by Consul General Raly Tejada |
“Dapat ang Tesda na mismo ang magti-training sa mga helpers
para matiyak na maayos ang training at mabawasan ang bayarin nila,” Miranda
said, adding that Tesda fees are low and some of its courses are even free.
(Tesda should be conducting the training of the helpers so they can be assured
of the quality, and the fees won’t be as much).
The same view was expressed by Labatt Dizon during a meeting
two weeks ago with Filipino community leaders who sought a dialogue with him on
the training fee controversy.
Labatt Dizon said Tesda should do the training and in fact, it had already begun doing so for outbound OFWs.
Overpriced but insufficient or “useless” training offered by
centers handpicked by Philippine agencies had led to thousands of OFWs complaining
of huge debts they incurred even before they could start earning their first
dollar.
In Hong Kong, where there are about 210,000 Filipino
domestic helpers as of the latest Imimigration figures, hundreds have come out
to say they had been charged between $25,000 and $100,000 or more by agencies
back home for the training fee alone.
In an earlier meeting with other Filcom leaders in November,
Labatt Dizon said those fees are illegal since nowhere is it stated in the 2016
POEA Rules that domestic workers should undergo training.
The labour chief apparently said essentially the same thing
during a zoom meeting with agencies earlier in the year. He reportedly said
that OFWs bound for Hong Kong must not be required to undergo training unless
they failed the Tesda assessment.
Dizon’s statement was challenged by Alfredo Palmiery, a representative
of recruitment agencies in the Philippines, who asked POEA Administrator
Bernard Olalia for a clarification on the matter.
In turn, Olalia categorically said in a letter to Palmiery dated
June 19 this year that recruitment agencies cannot compel OFWs to pay for
training before their deployment.
Olalia cited certain provisions in the POEA Rules that
expressly prohibit licensed recruitment agencies from requiring OFWs to undergo
training, seminars or the like, unless the principal (or the employer) shoulders
the cost of such training.
“As can be interpreted from the above provisions of the POEA
Rules, the employer (principal) or the licensed recruitment agency can validly
require applicant OFWs to undergo training in a specially select training
center or facility provided that it (principal or agency) pays for
the cost of the training,” said Olalia.
Hong Kong agencies who are sympathetic to Palmiery’s cause, have
in turn argued that the POEA stand unfairly burdens employers who mostly
require helpers to undergo training to upgrade
their skills.
The agencies appeared to have gone as far as raising the
issue in the Legislative Council’s Question Hour last Wednesday through LegCo
Member Cheung Kwok-kwan.
Cheung said “the Philippine Government has recently issued
instructions that migrant workers are not required to pay for the expenses on
the training they receive and applications for documents, which are to be borne
by their employers instead.”
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong replied the Consulate
had stated that, according to the prevailing policy, all domestic helpers going
to work overseas are required to obtain a skills competency certificate issued
by (Tesda) to prove that they have completed a skills assessment.
“If employers or employment agencies request or arrange [the
domestic helpers] to attend training, the relevant fees will be borne by the
employers or EAs concerned,” Law cited the Philippine Consulate General as
saying.
The Consulate also reportedly argued the arrangement had
been in place since 2016 and was not a new policy.
