Philippine Overseas Labour Offices in Dubai best in region: Official SHARJAH: The Aquino administration is beefing up the manpower in all of the 36 Philippine Overseas Labour Offices (POLOs) worldwide. The Philippine’s Labour and Employment Secretary, Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, who recently checked on the facilities and services upgrade in Polo-Abu Dhabi and Polo-Dubai, said over 162 personnel would be deployed to make these offices “centres of excellence”. According to Baldoz, the best POLO among the 12 in the Gulf and nearby countries is POLO-Dubai. Factors considered in the rating are the improvements at the Filipino Workers Resource Centre as the site for continuing training programmes and services to the Filipino community and the wards, and the speedy resolution of cases concerning distressed or displaced OFWs. Among the new POLO personnel are licensed social workers who would be in charge of the psycho-social needs of distressed or displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), particularly the vulnerable runaway women household services workers (HSWs) temporarily housed at these government offices until their respective labour cases are resolved and repatriated back home. It was learnt on Tuesday that POLO-Abu Dhabi already has one licensed social worker. In her recent visit, Baldoz met with leaders and representatives of the 56 clubs and organisations in Dubai and the Northern Emirates (DNE) recognised by the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai, including representatives from some companies. She and other top-level officials from the Department of Labour and Employment came from the Abu Dhabi-held dialogue of government-to-government discussions on better employer-employee relations between and among labour-sending and labour-receiving countries in Kuwait, where she turned over the Philippine chairmanship to her Kuwaiti counterpart, Social Affairs and Labour Minister Hind Al-Sabeeh. Baldoz assured her country people that President Benigno Aquino III is determined to leave a legacy before his term ends in 2016, and therefore, the recent marching order for all POLO management and staff is out to deliver better services to their clients. The other POLOs are located in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Switzerland, Greece, Hong Kong, Iraq, Jordan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, UK, Spain, Italy, Oman, Japan, Qatar, US, Saipan and Singapore. These are under the stewardship of labour attaches supported by officers and staff from other Department of Labour and Employment affiliate agencies, primarily the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). Owwa officers are responsible for the distressed or displaced OFWs. A tour at POLO-Dubai showed an upgrade on the cleanliness of the surroundings and the shelter facilities, including a dedicated ICT room where wards may learn or upgrade their computer knowledge and skills. The wards have also been provided with a well-equipped modern kitchen where they are taught the carinderia (Philippine eatery selling and serving ordinary food and viands)-style of cooking so that when they are repatriated, they have the knowledge and the skills necessary for starting a business. Moreover, halls have been designated for weekly knowledge and skills enhancement programmes for all Filipinos, or anyone of Filipino descent, courtesy of any of the 56 Filipino clubs and organisations in the DNE and by other volunteers. According to the Labour Attaché Delmer Cruz, the speedy resolution of the labour and employment cases of runaways is brought about by the full cooperation of the 80 recognised agencies in the DNE and their respective partner recruitment agencies in the Philippines. There used to be 120 recruitment agencies accredited by POLO-Dubai. This was trimmed down to 80, since Cruz himself discovered that 40 had either been operating with expired trade licences or were frequently non-compliant with the regulations of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration rules and regulations such as contract substitution or illegal recruitment. With regard to HSWs, these are violators of the $400.00 (Php1,500) minimum salary. Defaulting recruitment agencies in terms of the resolution of the labour issues and concerns of their recruits—the distressed or displaced OFWs—are not given the seal of approval for their Job Orders (JOs) “until they resolve the cases,” Cruz said. Meanwhile, the labour attache said JOs are easily approved in the same day if the manpower agencies or direct employers submit the required documents before noon every day. The documents “must be complete and in order” and should include the trade licence, the special power of authority from the Philippine-based recruitment agency and its partner agency in the DNE, the recruitment agreement between the employer and the recruitment agencies, and the master contract for the skilled and professional workers or the individual contracts for each HSW.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:35:27 +0000
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