DOLE: Last batch of 6 Pinoys arrives from Libya
Six Filipino workers were repatriated from Libya after Philippine labor officials mediated their row with a recruitment agency over unpaid salaries and benefits. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the recruitment agency advanced the payment of the workers' salaries worth 33,062 dinars ($25,850.19 or P1.171 million) and air fare. "The six OFWs were the last group among 62 Filipino workers who demanded for mass repatriation in December 2008 when SRL Enterprise Libya failed to honor its contractual obligations, particularly the one-time payment of salaries, overtime pay and suitable accommodation," the Labor Department said in its website (http://www.dole.gov.ph/secondpage.php?id=1336). It said the 62 OFWs ran away and asked for temporary shelter at the Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) maintained by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Tripoli while their case was being resolved. All of them had already been repatriated after receiving payment for their full salaries and other benefits. Citing a report from the POLO, Baldoz identified the six workers as Renato Valderrama, Edmund Andal, Joel Capiz, Eliseo Ladlip, Ariel Dulay, and Allan Gabut. She identified their employer as SRL Enterprise Libya, and the local agency as Fastlinks International Agency. Philippine labor attaché in Tripoli Nasser Mustafa reported that in October 2009, the six workers sought the POLO’s representation on their case against SRL Enterprise Libya. At the time, the workers demanded their immediate repatriation and settlement of their salaries and other benefits. The OFWs claimed that their contracts have expired and SRL Enterprise Libya had asked them to extend their work with the promise that they will be paid in full and will eventually be repatriated, the DOLE said. “During the mediation meetings that the POLO conducted between the workers and their company, together with Fastlinks International Agency, the six OFWs opted to stay at work but insisted immediate payment of their salaries since they have been delayed for six months in sending remittances to their families in the Philippines," Mustafa said. But he said SRL Enterprise Libya continued to promise payments, saying that it is expecting receivables from clients for the projects it is currently undertaking. He added the firm, unable to keep its end of the bargain, even demanded that the complainants wait until their visas expire in March 2010, claiming this was an immigration rule. In December 2009 the OFWs refused to work when the company was unable to pay their salary for the month. They stayed at the company’s accommodation facility for nine months while their case was being resolved.—JV, GMANews.TV