36 more OFWs lose jobs in South Korea

MANILA, Philippines — Thirty-six more Filipino workers in South Korea have been retrenched, adding to the growing number of OFWs losing their jobs as a result of the worsening global economic crisis, a migrant workers’ group said on Thursday. Migrante International the 36 OFWs were employed by Display Technology Company Ltd. in Anseong Si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Gina Gaborni, Migrante’s deputy secretary-general, said the workers were fired without any compensation. To make matters worse, the unfortunate workers reportedly sought help from the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, only to be offered mere job referral letters as the only form of assistance it could give. "This is the height of callousness! The 36 retrenched OFWs were illegally dismissed from their jobs without any compensation. They don't have any place to stay nor the money to pay for their own repatriation. And yet the only thing our embassy can offer them are useless job referrals," Gaborni complained. She said the workers have sought temporary shelter among fellow Filipinos in the community. Gaborni claimed that the retrenched OFWs were met by Garry Martinez, Migrante International's chairperson, who is currently in Korea to attend the general assembly of their member organization. Among the 36 OFWs were Dacal Sanchez Mira from Cagayan province, Macario Gomez from Ilocos Norte, Genelyn Karganilla from La Union, and Eulalia Ogorida from Pasig City. "We are saddened by the fact that the Arroyo Administration is too preoccupied with its aggressive marketing of OFWs across the globe while being unmindful of the continuing violations being committed against the rights and welfare of OFWs being hardly hit by the present global financial crisis. This is unacceptable!" says Gaborni. The group revealed that recent retrenchments of foreign workers in different countries are allegedly being done arbitrarily without giving any proper notice or any warning to OFWs. Due compensation are allegedly being also denied to OFWs and airfares for their repatriation are also being shouldered by the OFWs themselves. "If this would become the portent of things to come, then we are afraid that the new job openings being boasted by President Arroyo in different countries abroad would only place more OFWs in a situation where their rights are totally being disregarded. We call on the Arroyo Administration to stop its exploitative labor exportation and focus more on protecting OFWs in this time of crisis" Gaborni said. Recently, the group also reported that more than 800 OFWs were retrenched in Taiwan for this month alone. Migrante cited the 161 retrenched OFWs from Walton Advanced Engineering Inc; 162 retrenched OFWs from Inotera; 127 from Tripod; 62 from Ichia Technology; 42 from Chipmos; 32 from Sintek plus 400 more from different Taiwan companies. - D'Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV