Arroyo asked to veto bill amending law on OFWs

A number of overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) groups urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week to veto amendments to the migrant workers’ law, which they said are anti-OFW particularly the provision on mandatory insurance.

In a letter dated March 4, the groups said while the intent of some of the amendments are laudable, the bill amending the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 or Republic Act 8042 should be vetoed as a whole for several reasons.

The groups include members of the Consultative Council on OFWs (CCOFW), or representatives of migrant workers organizations, labor groups, trade unions, seafarers’ organizations, policy and research institutes and individual advocates.

The bill’s provision on compulsory insurance, the groups said, applies only to OFWs deployed through recruitment agencies and excludes the majority of Filipino workers whose services were not contracted through agencies.

The group said data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) covering 1990- 2008 show that only an average of 26.6 percent of the total number of OFWs are deployed through recruitment agencies, while the bulk of workers renew their contracts on their own or are hired through government placement or are direct hires.

Mandatory insurance should also not be legislated, they argued, saying recruitment or manning agencies must voluntarily insure their workers.

“In the case of the seafarers, prior to sailing, they are already enrolled by their employers in a comprehensive insurance policy, together with the vessels they work in. In the final version of the amendatory law, the proposed insurance is extended to seafarers. However, the benefits are far inferior to those enjoyed by seafarers under the current insurance scheme,” the groups stated in the letter.

The group also questioned the ability of pertinent government agencies to implement the amendments to the law, as they scored the POEA for allegedly failing to curb illegal recruitment as it is tasked to do so under the law.

Instead, the groups urge the government to work on forging rights-based labor agreements with receiving countries, which they said will do more in protecting the rights of OFWs.

The groups also expressed opposition to the retention of RA 8042’s section 10, which limits money claims of OFWs terminated without due cause to just the equivalent of three months’ salary for every year of the unexpired contract.

“[O]n the strength of our conviction that the amendatory law on RA8042, particularly the provision on the compulsory insurance provision and the non-repeal of the particular provision on Section 10 on money claims, will harm, not benefit, our migrant workers, we believe that you (Arroyo) should veto this bill,” the groups maintained.

The letter has over 40 signatories, including Center for Migrant Advocacy, Akbayan Citizen’s Action Party, Philippine Migrants Rights Watch, Alliance of Progressive Labor, and Focus on the Global South.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV