Claiming your Refund Claiming the refund of your placement fees POEA Claim (For Filipinos):if you paid a placement fee in the Philippines or have been required by your recruiter in the Philippines to sign a loan agreement there, you may file a complaint with the Philippine Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Hong Kong against your Philippine and Hong Kong agencies. The OWWA will contact the Hong Kong principal and arrange a conciliation meeting between you and the agency representative. The meeting is an opportunity for you to negotiate the return of all or at least part of your placement fee and/or the cancellation of any loan arranged by the agency. If the matter is not settled during the meeting you may pursue the case through the POEA. In addition to the placement fee refund, if your employment was prematurely terminated without any valid reason, you may also file a claim with the National Labour Relations Commission (NLRC) against the agency for damages for illegal dismissal amounting to at least 3 months’ salary for every year of the unexpired term of the contract. For example, if you were dismissed within 1 month of employment, you could claim at least 6 months’ salary. It may even be possible to claim wages for the remaining period of the contract based on a precedent case. If you were the one who terminated the employment contract the agency is less likely to offer a substantial refund of your placement fee. This is because the agency is not exposed to any claim for damages for illegal dismissal. Therefore there is less pressure on the agency to offer a refund since it is more difficult to prove payment of placement fees for which agencies do not issue receipts. We therefore advise you to carefully read what you are being asked to sign by the agency or your employer as there have been many cases where domestic helpers were tricked or coerced into signing resignation letters even though they did not intend to resign. This effectively weakens their bargaining power against the agency. Another agency trick is to promise to find you another employer and keep you waiting until your permission to stay in Hong Kong expires. The Conciliation Meeting at OWWA. Negotiation strategies Although it may sometimes happen, it is rare for a Filipino worker to be able to recover in full the placement fees she has paid to the agency during the conciliation meeting at OWWA even though she is entitled to it. She will be expected to bargain. What many Filipino complainants often do is to ask for the refund of half of the placement fee she has paid or the lowest amount she is prepared to accept at the start of the meeting. That is not advisable. Even if you are willing to accept less than what you have paid, you should always start by asking for full refund because the agency will almost always offer an amount much lower than what you ask for, if it offers any amount at all. You will then be expected to negotiate and lower your demand in order to reach a settlement agreement. So if you immediately ask for the lowest amount you are prepared to accept, chances are you will not get it. Start high and only reduce your demand a little after the agency makes a lower offer but do not keep going lower if the agency’s offer is not increasing to meet yours. You may, of course insist on a full refund if you wish especially if you have some evidence of your payment or if you have evidence of having been abused by the employer. Do not let anyone press you into accepting an amount that you are not happy with, or discourage you from pursuing your claim in the Philippines. If you receive an unreasonable amount of settlement, it is not because you lost in the negotiation but because you accepted the offer. Remember it is not your last chance to recover the money and do not believe it when you are told (and you probably will be) that there is little chance of getting a refund in the Philippines. HDH has had many clients who were able to recover much more than what they were offered by their agency in Hong Kong. But you have to be prepared to assert your rights and take actions.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 23:31:59 +0000