UAE promises to protect rights of OFWs

MANILA, Philippines — United Arab Emirates (UAE) labor minister Saqr Ghobash Saeed Ghobash has assured Senate president pro tempore Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada that his office will protect the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) there. Online news site Khaleej Times (www.khaleejtimes.com) said on Saturday that the official gave the assurance during Estrada's recent visit to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The report said Saeed Ghobash assured Estrada that he would seriously look into these problems. The minister is also likely to visit Manila in October. Estrada, who also chairs the Senate labor committee, had met with Saeed Ghobash to discuss several major labor concerns involving OFWs in the UAE. He voiced concern over rampant contract substitution, protection and welfare of household service workers and the recruitment process of workers coming into the UAE to take up employment. Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Libran Cabactulan was also present at the meeting, said the report, Estrada said that household service workers are not under the jurisdiction of the UAE labor ministry, but are under the interior ministry's Department of Naturalization and Residency. He added the recruitment of workers who arrive in the UAE on a visit visa is putting Filipino job-seekers in the UAE at a disadvantage. "People traveling from the Philippines on visit or tourist visas are not subjected to the regulations of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)," he noted. On contract substitution, he said the OFWs with employment contracts verified by the Philippine labor attachės are, upon their arrival in the UAE, often forced by their employers to sign new work contracts, but with lower salaries and benefits. Estrada said there should be closer cooperation between the UAE and the Philippine governments to ensure that UAE labor authorities register only standard contracts. - GMANews.TV