POEA bucks mandatory insurance for OFWs

MANILA, Philippines – To protect departing overseas Filipino workers from paying excessive fees, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) rejected a proposed congressional measure for the adoption of a compulsory liability insurance scheme for all OFWs.

POEA deputy administrator Hans Cacdac said any additional insurance for OFWs should be on a voluntary basis.

He said that based on an assessment by the Office of the Solicitor General, the insurance would protect only the recruiters, not the OFWS.

According to Cacdac, the best way to safeguard the OFWs against abuses in a liability insurance scheme is to make it voluntary in nature.

“Let the OFW decide whether they shall be covered by liability insurance or not,” Cacdac said while adding that the POEA will submit to Congress its position on the proposal.

A proposed amendment to the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act pending before Congress calls for the inclusion of a provision imposing a mandatory liability insurance on all Filipinos working abroad.

Under the proposal, each OFW deployed by a licensed agency shall be covered by employment liability insurance equivalent to at least six months of the worker’s salary.

According to the measure, the insurance shall be used to pay money claims or damages given to workers if a case is decided by or settled before the National Labor Relations Commission.

Recruitment agencies are pushing for the passage of the proposed measure, which they claimed would relieve them from the burden of shouldering money claims.

Migrants workers’ groups, however, are strongly opposed to the measure.

While the proposal states that the insurance shall be at no cost for the workers, Cacdac said there is no assurance that such a financial burden shall not be passed on the departing workers.

“The insurance would cost billions of pesos for the one million OFWs leaving the country annually and where would the recruitment industry get that fund if they would not require the workers to shoulder at least half of the cost?” Cacdac said.

At this time, Cacdac said, the POEA is looking at the adequacy of the escrow deposits of recruitment agencies to cover the OFW claims.

“We see the escrow deposits as a better way to address the workers’ money claims,” he said. –Mayen Jaymalin (philstar.com)