At Anti-Human Trafficking Forum, Manpower Agencies Learn Best Recruitment Practices to Protect OFWs
By: Tricia Aquino, InterAksyon.com
May 12, 2015 5:44 AM
Recruitment agencies are banding together to combat the negative reputation the manpower industry has been saddled with due to their unscrupulous colleagues, especially after overseas Filipino worker Mary Jane Veloso was put on death row in Indonesia after being tricked into a false job in Malaysia in 2010.
Fortunately, her death sentence was deferred last month, to the entire Filipino nation’s relief.
Representatives from industry associations in the land-based sector attended the seminar “Understanding the Expanded Anti-Trafficking Law in the Context of Overseas Employment” Monday at the New World Manila Bay Hotel in Manila, where officials from the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, Department of Justice, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and nongovernmental organizations spoke about the measures they were taking to prevent OFWs from becoming victims of human trafficking.
“There are still many of us who create decent programs for our OFWs,” Nora Braganza, HRD Employment Consultants and Multi-services Inc. president, said.
She said that ethical recruitment agencies focused their efforts not just on OFWs, but on their staff and clients, as well.
First, recruitment agencies taught their teams about overseas employment regulations and laws and informed them about illegal acts.
Next, recruitment agencies guided their clients about overseas employment policies, talked to them about which fees and costs they should shoulder and which were the OFWs’ responsibility, and enlightened them about the procedures and requirements in hiring.
It was important to remind clients that there should only be one contract before and after the OFWs were deployed. Recruitment agencies should also stress that the OFWs could only be employed in the place and position for which they were hired.
Ethical recruitment agencies did not accept just any client. Those who refused to pay visa and POEA processing costs, who were unwilling to comply with POEA’s regulations, and those who could not accept that the OFWs were “humans and not products” should not be accommodated.
As for applicants who wished to work abroad, ethical recruitment agencies educated them about the procedures and requirements, including the fees that needed to be paid, how much, when, and to whom.
It was essential to inform applicants of the challenges that came with being an OFW. After which the recruitment agencies should assess whether applicants were still ready to make their dream of working abroad a reality.
Qualified applicants were then endorsed to the client for the final selection. They were advised to undergo medical exams, and if necessary, skills training or competency assessment as well.
It was vital that the applicants read, understood, and signed a job offer letter and employment contract before their Overseas Employment Certificate was processed at POEA. They would have to attend pre-departure seminars, afterwards.
When giving pre-employment orientation seminars and pre-deployment orientation seminars, recruitment agencies must highlight information such as salient provisions of their contract, their duties, and their goals.
“They cannot be OFWs forever,” Braganza explained. The need to save money should be instilled in the applicants. They should also make plans to return home for good.
Recruitment agencies and qualified applicants should also discuss the communication process between the two while the latter was abroad. The former should emphasize that their relationship would not end as soon as the OFWs were deployed. Until the OFWs were back home, the recruitment agencies should still monitor the former’s wellbeing.
Recruitment agencies should have counselors who would coordinate with the OFWs, listen to them and give them advice, receive their reports and complaints, and help the resolve and report their problems.
POEA Licensing and Regulations Branch Director IV Robert Larga added that recruitment agencies must self-regulate and adopt codes of conduct, be transparent, address OFWs’ complaints immediately, and respect their human and labor rights.
Meanwhile, Philippine Migrants Rights Watch president and Development Action for Women executive director Carmelita Nuqui sought an assessment of POEA’s pre-employment seminars and questioned the effectiveness of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration’s pre-departure orientation seminars. Not only was the latter done in one day, but other off-topic matters were discussed in the same venue, too, she said.
Other processes should be evaluated in the same way, she added.
The efforts of recruitment agencies to counter human trafficking would elevate the industry in the eyes of the public and the government, Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute president Susan Ople said.
She recommended that the recruitment agencies, together with advocacy groups such as the Ople Center, craft a strategic action plan which would protect OFWs from sexual and labor exploitation.