Nanay Gloria Offered Taiwan Job After Getting $18k Separation Pay from HK Employer
By Inaki Garcia
If she wants to, domestic worker Gloria Ortinez could work in Taiwan after she received $18,000 in separation pay from her Hong Kong employer, government officials said.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz assured Ortinez, 56, that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will provide her re-employment assistance depending on her plan or next move after her bad experience as a victim of the “tanim-bala” modus operandi at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“If she decides to work abroad again, the POEA will facilitate her re-employment. In fact, Administrator Hans Cacdac of the POEA is already looking for work for her overseas,” Baldoz said in a statement issued late on Monday (November 16).
The labor chief said this option was already discussed before Ortinez returned to Hong Kong on November 14 to talk to her employer, who agreed to hire her back when Ortinez is ready to return to work.
Baldoz’s statement said Ortinez’s employer “paid her termination and other benefits of HK$18,000.”
On the other hand, Cacdac said the POEA can enroll Ortinez, if she wants to continue working as domestic worker, with the International Direct Employment Service, or I-DES, the Special Hiring Program for Taiwan.
This program is a government-to-government online hiring scheme for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) wanting to work in Taiwan and “serves as an alternative to agency hiring and brokers.”
Cacdac added that licensed recruitment agencies were “already lined up to interview her for a possible new overseas job.”
If Ortinez will opt to stay and work in the Philippines, Baldoz said the Bureau of Local Employment will also help in facilitating her local employment “depending on her inclination and qualifications.”
Baldoz said the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will provide Ortinez other forms of support under the National Reintegration Program for OFWs. This could include training on financial literacy, entrepreneurship, or technical skills upgrading.
After her training, which will be only a week at the most, Ortinez can engage in business and avail of the Balik-Pinay Balik Hanapbuhay entrepreneurship assistance which come in the form of home-based business starter kit, tools, and jigs, Baldoz said.
The same is offered by the National Reintegration Program for OFWs under its Balik-Pinas Balik Hanapbuhay Program, she said.
Ortinez can also avail of a low-interest, long-repayment loan from the Landbank of the Philippines under the OWWA’s P2-Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund for OFW entrepreneurs since she is an OWWA member, Baldoz added.