RP nurses tricked to New Zealand jobs urged to tell on recruiters

MANILA, Philippines - A migrants’ support group in New Zealand is willing to provide assistance to Filipino professionals, particularly nurses, who become victims of false promises of recruiters and loan sharks, in taking their cases to court. The group called Wellington Kiwi Pinoy (WKP) was organized early this year to extend support to Filipino jobseekers in the New Zealand capital who have fallen to the tricks of unscrupulous recruiters. In an email to GMANews.TV, Mary Ellen O’Connor, WKP coordinator, explained that numerous cases of recruitment malpractices involving Filipino nurses had become a serious concern in NZ. The most common scheme is collection of exorbitant recruitment or processing fees which, when paid in installments or through salary deductions upon employment, carry usurious interests. Another common deception is substitution of contract terms and conditions, and the nature of employment. No choice “Nurses are told they will be working in a hospital in New Zealand. However, on arrival most find they are to be employed in aged care, unable to utilize most of their nursing training and earning significantly less than they had counted on," O’Connor said in the email. “They have no choice but to stay because they are bonded to these agents, for between two and three years to pay back their loans. They tend to work very hard, sometimes working a night shift on top of a day in order to maximize earnings," she continued. O’Connor added that work shifts are changed on short notice, making it difficult for the recruited nurses to have any kind of social life. The nurses are also often forced into crowded living arrangements “because that is all they can afford." Despite the depressing situation of the victims, many of them are reluctant to speak up for fear of worsening their already difficult situations. O’Connor said that the hesitation of the victims to tell their stories keeps the abusive practices going on. “There is a pressing need to accumulate a body of evidence about these practices in order to advance the cause, and possibly take a case to court," she said. O’Connor urged Filipino nurses who are prepared to speak about their experiences and have them documented to contact kinoywgtn@gmail.com. She assured that the information and identity of the person will be treated confidential. Non-Filipinos who are willing to help in their cause are most welcome, she said. Aside from WKP, O’Connor also encouraged “problematic" Filipino professionals, especially nurses, to get in touch with Dennis Maga, a Filipino trade unionist based in Auckland, through his email dennis.maga@yahoo.co.nz or migrantenz@yahoo.co.nz. O’Connor said she is optimistic that the direct hiring scheme recently signed by the Counties Manukau District Health Board and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to bring Filipino nurses to New Zealand would be successful to cut out ‘greedy’ recruiting agents. “If this deal works well, there is no reason why others couldn’t adopt it," she said. – GMANews.TV