Secretary of Labor and Employment Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday directed the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Singapore headed by Labor Attache Vicente Cabe to verify a report that foreign domestic workers, including Filipino household service workers, are being put in display and made available for “purchase” at “discounted prices” in some shopping malls in Singapore, and directed the labor official to coordinate with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), headed by Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac, in laying down stricter measures to protect Filipino domestic workers from such practice that degrades human dignity.
“Verify this report if true and submit a definitive assessment. Coordinate with POEA and lay down stricter measures in the deployment of HSWs (house service workers) to Singapore to ensure they are protected from even the slightest moral and psychological abuse, such as being made to display themselves in malls as if they are commodities,” instructed Baldoz after she was alerted to a news report on the matter.
The news report identifies the Bukit Timah Shopping Center in Central Singapore as one of the malls where there are so-called “galleries” inside which foreign women workers are allegedly being offered and advertised for hiring as domestic workers at “super promo” rates.
Baldoz said that if true, this kind of practice is offensive to the dignity of the workers.
She ordered Administrator Cacdac to “inventory” all POEA-licensed recruitment agencies deploying HSWs to Singapore and to find out if any one of these is privy to, or involved in any way, in the practice.
“If it is foreign placement agencies (FPAs) that are involved, slap them with applicable sanction, such as blacklisting them from hiring OFWs, or canceling their accreditation with the POLO,” said Baldoz.
The labor and employment chief’s directive to Labor Attache Cabe included the expansion of the available space at the Filipino Workers Resource Center, or Bahay Kalinga, to accommodate more productive activities and events for OFWs, and to fast-track the repatriation of distressed domestic workers so that the FWRC can be transformed into a “center of care and excellence” pursuant to President Benigno S. Aquino III’s thrust under his 22-point labor and employment agenda.
Enhancing the protection of migrant workers is a key DOLE strategy to strengthen social protection for vulnerable workers.
She said that the POLO, OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration), and the POEA must work closely together to ensure that HSWs and other OFWs have a decent place with adequate space to stay or visit in the Center where they could engage in productive and wholesome activities.
“This way, they will not spend their rest days in places where they could become vulnerable to unhealthy and unproductive pastimes,” she said.
“The FWRC must intensify training, seminars, and the like to improve OFW skills and capabilities,” she added.
She bared that towards this end, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will already implement at the FWRC with the Consulate and the POLO in Singapore and other HSW destination its skills training assessment and certification program.
“I reiterate that we must work towards training and guiding our HSWs towards occupations that require higher skills and, therefore, pay much higher, such as home-based domestic work to establishment-based occupations,” she explained.
To Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) chief Rebecca Calzado, Baldoz issued the instruction to make the OWWA’s 24/7 hotline services accessible at the Center to HSWs in Singapore, particularly those who would like to lodge complaints about their working conditions.
“The OWWA must also pursue the training module on transforming our OFWs, not just HSWs, into becoming ambassadors of goodwill. This will contribute to their empowerment,” Baldoz said.
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