RP freezes deployment of nurses to UAE over court case

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine labor authorities have frozen the deployment of Filipino nurses to the United Arab Emirates' General Authority for Health Services over the court cases of 100 Filipinos there. Online news site Khaleej Times (www.khaleejtimes.com) reported Monday that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) issued the freeze order since September. The Philippine embassy in Abu Dhabi, which received the POEA order only this week, said the deployment of Filipino nurses will be frozen until the cases of the 100 Filipinos working at Al Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi is resolved in court. Earlier, Philippine Ambassador Libran Cabactulan recommended to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila the immediate halt to the allocation process. Of the 100, 17 cases were brought to his attention last Aug. 20, most of them having served 10 to 25 years with the hospital. "This is the first time that Filipino nurses working at Al Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi are said to have failed to qualify the clinical assessments. Indeed, this is very surprising," he said. Cabactulan was also appalled over the reply of a top Al Mafraq official when he asked him if such massive termination could ever happen in America, England or the Philippines. "His answer was a 'No,' citing labor unions there. It was as if they can do anything here or that the rights of the workers can be trampled upon because no one can stand up for their rights. I even said 'go ahead' when one of his comments seemed to suggest that they would recruit nurses from elsewhere," Cabactulan said. Philippine embassy labor attaché Nasser Mundir earlier said only 88 of the affected nurses had so far filed their cases in the Court. He said the rest of the 250 of the batch of foreign nurses, who were served with their termination papers in August decided to go to other countries. "Originally, it was October 7 then it was rescheduled to October 14 and later October 16. Now, the latest rescheduled date is October 26," the nurses said of their court hearings. On the other hand, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in the Emirates cannot give the exact number of Filipino nurses working in the UAE at present. Assistant Labor Attaché in Dubai Ching Ardivilla, said the hiring of nurses is done in Manila through POEA. As such, she said figures of the professionals working in the UAE are not available. For his part, Philippine Consul General in Dubai Benito Valeriano said Filipino nurses have thorough training in universities with internationally-accepted standards. "They have the skills and proficiency in English and are in demand in the US and Europe. They can always shift to any country, which can offer them maybe better, career opportunities,' he said. Meanwhile, a separate Khaleej Times report said at least 20 percent of the Filipino nurses involved in the mass termination at Al Mafraq Hospital are bound for Canada. Mundir said only 88 of the affected nurses joined in the filing of cases in the Abu Dhabi Court. "The rest are opting to go to Canada." Canada is now the destination of Filipino nurses as their hospitals are recruiting directly from Manila. Besides Canada, the US and the UK are the other popular career destinations for Filipino nurses. The Labor Department in Manila said hospitals in California recently indicated that they would like to hire more Filipino nurses and have offered them good compensation. This October, the Canadian government signed a deal with the Philippines government for 57,000 and 113,000 nurses until 2011. Figures indicated that some 7,683 Filipino nurses were employed worldwide last year after some 26,281 nurses were absorbed from 1995 to 1999. Latest to open its doors to Filipino nurses are France, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. POEA said an increase of 25.3 per cent is registered yearly among these hospitals in the countries recruiting Filipino nurses. Meanwhile, labor secretary Marianito Roque said employment in the Middle East will not be affected heavily by the global economic meltdown, saying the bulk of the Middle East dealing is not with the Americans. Hence, the Middle East has not been affected yet, though there is speculation about job cuts and slowdown in the construction industry. Roque urged all labor officials of the Philippine diplomatic posts in the region to be proactive and vigilant in providing improved job programs for Filipino workers in the region. - GMANews.TV