MikeLigalig.com

Danny Buenafe

The Italian dream of many Filipinos may remain just that if a controversial circular of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) remains in effect.

POEA Memorandum Circular No. 4 or the Guidelines on the Direct Hiring of Filipino Workers states that foreign employers opting for direct hiring have to put up a repatriation bond of $5,000 and a performance bond equivalent to three months’ salary of the worker.

The memorandum, issued on Dec. 18, 2007, makes no distinction between new and current overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

An ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau report said the memorandum has turned off most Italian employers.

More than 2,000 Filipino workers in Milan had already signed a petition strongly opposing the POEA memorandum. They described the order as anti-worker and an additional burden to foreign employers and OFWs who are attempting to bring in their relatives to work in Italy.

The report said Italy is most affected by the provisions of the POEA memo since a large number of OFWs are working in the European country.

For Italian employer Susana Marchesin, Filipino domestic workers are one of the best in the world but with the implementation of the POEA memo she said she no longer plans to employ Filipinos in the future.

The Philippine Consulate in Milan scored the timing of the release of the POEA circular and said the provisions of the memo do not apply with the general condition of Filipino workers in Europe.

OFWs in Italy are not the only ones decrying the POEA memo circular.

“With the POEA MC-04, it will be our jobs that will be at stake. This rule is a grave threat to our employment,” said Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong.

Balladares predicted that Filipino workers who are renewing their contracts with the same employer or are transferring employers because of a finished or a pre-terminated contract stand to lose their employment under the new policy.
 
She said: “For an employer of a domestic helper in Hong Kong, this (bond) translates to almost HK$50,000. Practical and financial reasons alone will inhibit prospective employers from shelling out the amount.”

She said that in “the desperation of the (Philippine) government to increase its financial gains from the labor export industry” it has allegedly put the livelihood of OFWs in a vulnerable situation.

She called on the Philippine government to immediately scrap the “dangerous POEA MC-04.”

Meanwhile, OFWs in Singapore urged the Philippine Congress to review and repeal the circular, citing its negative effects on Filipino workers.

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