Korea accepts only POEA-endorsed OFWs

Korea is no longer entertaining Filipino jobseekers recruited by private agencies. Filipinos can no longer be hired to work in Korea under the Alien Industrial Trainee System (AITS) that allowed hiring through private recruiters, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said. Korea had abolished the trainee scheme and stopped issuing trainee visas since Jan 1, 2007, Dr. Yang-Dal Kim, president of Human Resources Development Service of Korea, said in a recent meeting with POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz. As a result, Philippine licensed agencies that used to hire trainees for Korea could no longer recruit workers under the trainee scheme. Korea has shifted to the Employment Permit System (EPS), which is a government-to-government recruitment system, thereby doing away with private recruitment. This scheme is observed in eight other countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Under this scheme, Korean employers can only get foreign workers legally through the EPS. The POEA is the only government agency authorized to implement the scheme in the Philippines. “Filipinos working as industrial trainees must comeback to the Philippines upon expiration of their contract and reapply under the EPS instead of going illegal," Baldoz quoted Dr. Kim as telling her. Employers will face stiff penalty for employing illegal foreign workers in Korea, Dr. Kim warned. According to him, a huge number of overstaying workers will affect the labor quota that will be given to the Philippines under the EPS. The POEA said recruiters maybe held liable for violation of the 2002 POEA rules and regulations governing the recruitment and placement of landbased overseas workers and Republic Act 8042 or Migrant Workers & Overseas Filipino Act of 1995. For her part, Baldoz said former trainees who are seeking legal employment to Korea will have to register with the POEA and wait for at least six months before they could go back to work in that country. “They should pass the Korean Language Test (KLT) and the medical requirement for inclusion in the ‘Roster of Jobseekers’ to have another chance to be hired by Korean employer," Baldoz said. - GMANews.TV