Proposed OFW insurance to protect local recruiters

Instead of protecting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), a proposed insurance scheme will absolve recruitment agencies of any liability, migrant workers groups said. Compulsory insurance coverage for OFWs – as contained in a proposed amendment to the Migrant Workers Act of 1995 (Republic Act 8042) – will also further burden OFWs, the Center for Migrant Advocacy, the Kanlungan Centre Foundation Inc., and the Alliance of Progressive Labor said in a joint statement. All three groups also doubted how the proposed amendment could be implemented equally. “Only some 26 percent of OFWs deployed every year have agencies. A greater number of them are rehires, who renew their contracts on their own without agencies. How can this law be applied equally when it will cover only one-fourth of our migrant workers?" the groups said in a statement. The government should also refrain from legislating insurance coverage for OFWs since these are already being provided by some agencies, and in some cases, as a benefit by the employers themselves in the host countries, the groups said. The proposed insurance amendment is in the final stages of discussion at the joint Senate and House Bicameral Conference Committee, which is scheduled to meet later this week. “Many of the provisions of RA 8042, including the provision against the charging of placement fees, have until now not been efficiently implemented by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)," the statement said. “We question the ability of these government agencies to successfully monitor the implementation of these additional provisions. It thus creates another opportunity for unscrupulous recruitment and insurance companies to make money from our OFWs," the worker groups added. - GMANews.TV