POEA policy may yet exempt experienced DH

Domestic helpers returning abroad on extended contracts may yet be exempted from the three-day skills training required under the government’s new deployment guidelines. This possibility came up as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) sought a clarification from Labor Secretary Arturo Brion on the concerns raised by both workers and recruiters regarding the policy. In a news briefing Wednesday, POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz admitted that the agency’s governing board that approved the guidelines last year did not take into account “other matters" such as the issue regarding experienced domestic helpers returning to their employers on extended contracts. “This is a concern. We are bringing this matter to the Secretary and the board," Baldoz said. Domestic helpers and recruiters have been protesting against the implementation of the new policy, saying this would entail additional expenses. Recruiters raised fears the new policy would result in dramatic reduction in the hiring of Filipino domestic helpers principally because of the doubling of the hiring wage from $200 a month, and the raising of the hiring age to 25, from 21. The new guidelines prohibit recruitment agencies from collecting placement fees. It also requires domestic helpers to secure certificates on skills training and assessment from agencies accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda). To get the certificate, the domestic helper will have to undergo a three-day training seminar that would cost them between P10,000 and P15,000. Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz threw his support behind the possibility of exempting returning household workers from the required training and assessment system since their previous experience overseas is enough to qualify them from the scheme that is being supervised by Tesda. “They should be exempted. What is a three-day training (compared) to a two-year job experience?" Cruz pointed out in the news briefing. The new deployment policy took effect Dec. 16 but Baldoz said it would spare some 20,000 domestic helpers who would be leaving before March 1 because processing of their contracts began before the effective date of the new guidelines. Baldoz said roughly 40 percent of close to 300,000 domestic helpers sent overseas last year “will still be deployed despite the new policy" considering that some destinations like Hong Kong and European states are already paying more than $400 a month. She also allayed fears that a cut down on deployment would decrease dollar remittance to the Philippines since an increase in workers’ salary would mean better transfer of money to their families here. In a dialog last week, recruitment agencies asked the POEA if returning domestic helpers who have renewed their contracts are also covered by the training and assessment requirement of the government. The POEA met with officials of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, Inc. (FAME) a leading network of recruitment agencies across the country, last week to clarify matters pertaining to its circular. In that meeting, FAME failed to convince Brion to reconsider the provisions in the new deployment guidelines. He said the policy was intended to uplift the standards of the country’s domestic helpers and protect them from abuses by their foreign employers. But FAME President Eduardo Mahiya said the POEA policy would not only lead to a dramatic reduction in the deployment of household workers but also encourage illegal recruitment considering that many applicants could not afford the cost of training. “The POEA might just as well ban the deployment of domestic helpers rather than hide behind the cloak of regulatory niceties it calls reforms," Mahiya said. Because Tesda is acting only as an accreditation agency that authorizes recruitment firms to offer both training and assessment of workers, the fees charged on applicants range from P10,000 to P15,000. - GMANews.TV