Seven Filipino welders win case vs. former employer, get paid

The last laugh belonged to the seven Filipino workers in Qatar who filed a complaint against their former employer, the Office of the Vice President reported Friday.

Vice President Noli de Castro confirmed an earlier report by the Qatar Daily that workers Willy Catian, Arnold Magdua, Joselito San Jose, Ferdinand Calimag, Joselito Manalac, Rowel Tipon and Rizal Rosales were paid their back wages for four months and given one-way air tickets to the Philippines in accordance with the ruling of Qatar’s arbitration department.

“I received a report from our Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO)-Doha officer that our seven overseas Filipino workers have already made their post-holiday shopping. This is very good news for them and their families,” de Castro, also the Presidential Adviser on OFWs, said.

De Castro earlier alerted Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito Roque, as well as the Philippine Overseas Labor Office there, about the plight of the seven Filipino welders, which were reported staying in a small apartment and were ‘begging’ for donations from their compatriots to finance their needs.

The OFWs were retrenched four months ago, but still opted to stay in Qatar to make their erstwhile employers accountable for unpaid salaries. They also slammed Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO)-Qatar official Hector Cruz, whom the Filipino migrant workers accused of playing deaf to their case.

POLO reported that it advised the group to re-file their case before Qatar’s arbitration department in order for them to avail of Qatar’s legal processes. The group was said to have first opted to discontinue the arbitration proceedings when they chose to make an out-of-court settlement with their employer, but to no avail.
–Llanesca Panti, Manila Times