Web-based monitoring of OFWs, bosses soon

Migrant workers told to report abusive employers

MANILA, Philippines—As Filipino household service workers (HSWs) continue to be abused by their employers abroad, the Department of Labor and Employment on Wednesday bared its plan for an Internet-based, onsite monitoring of the profiles of overseas Filipino workers, as well as those of their foreign employers and foreign and local recruiters.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the Foreign Labor Operations Information System (FLOIS) is aimed at improving the delivery of services to OFWs onsite.

Covering the 38 Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (Polos) around the world, FLOIS integrates the labor department’s Information Systems Plan with those of the Polos to improve management and operations.

Roque said the new system, which was assigned to the department’s International Labor Affairs Bureau and its Planning Service during the recent department-wide planning sessions, is expected to be up and running “early this year.”

At the same time, the labor chief urged all OFWs who are being abused by their employers to get in touch with their families directly and report their situation to the labor department, to the nearest Polo, or to any office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) in the Philippines.

Roque asked the OFWs’ families, in case their kin suffer abuses in their jobs abroad, to contact and coordinate with the Philippine government offices rather than with certain groups which only use these cases of abuses and exploitation to advance their propaganda and vested interests.

Sometimes, he said, seeking other groups’ help only delays assistance as they create another layer of bureaucracy.

Following the report of some abused HSWs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Roque instructed Riyadh-based labor attaché Rustico Dela Fuente to determine the details of the cases. –Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net