Pinoy Nurses File Complaint of Contract Substitution
Maxxy Santiago, ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau
Posted at 01/12/16 8:38 PM
KUWAIT – Around 40 Filipino nurses, nursing assistants and caregivers sought help from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) to file a complaint against their company for contract substitution.
The group worked for a homecare company in Kuwait. Many of them are registered nurses who became caregivers when they arrived in Kuwait.
“Lahat nung nakalagay po doon sa standard employment contract na nasa Pinas, kabaligtaran po ang nangyari sa amin. Nurse po ako at yung nakasasaad po doon sasahod ako ng KD250 monthly. Pero yong nangyayari, KD140 monthly lang po at minsan hindi pa po natutupad yon. Hindi po naibibigay. Hindi po kami pinagtratrabaho as a nurse. Pinagtratrabaho po kami as caregivers at hindi lang po 8 hours a day pero 12 hours a day with no overtime payment. No day off,” said Jona Lee Basbaño.
Aside from that, the group said the three manpower recruitment agencies in the Philippines are making them pay excessive placement fees.
“P55,000 po, sabi po namin po bakit po masyadong malaki? Tapos sabi po nila P50K. Sabi po namin malaki pa po yon. And then po pinaka-fix na binigay nila sa amin P45K…so P45K po binayaran namin,” said nursing assistant Leonilda Petes.
Even massage therapists were made to work as caregivers. In the case of “Kyla,” who arrived in Kuwait last December 15, the nurse was made to sign a new contract by the company.
“KD150 ang sinabi pero dito po ang pinirmahan ko po KD135,” Kyla said.
It has almost been a week since the group had stopped working and left their company accommodation.
Meanwhile, the POLO-Kuwait has already summoned the representative of the homecare company.
“Hopefully, yung kakulangan sa salary dito sa Kuwait ay maso-solusyonan natin yan dito. Yun namang ni-raise na issue ng ating mga workers dito sa kumpanya na ito about excessive charging of placement fee doon sa Pilipinas yon po ay ipapadala natin sa POEA for further investigation. So kung talagang mapatunayan na ang bawat isa sa kanila hiningan ng sobra doon sa one month salary sa nakasaad sa kontrata, yon ay malinaw na paglabag sa POEA rules,” said POLO-Kuwait Assistant Labor Attache Angelita Narvaez.
The group still hopes that the company will give them what is written in their contract.
“Umabot po ako ng 10 buwan dito, hindi ko po ma-take. Tinutulak po ako ng loob ko na ipaabot at kamtin, kasama iyong mga kasamahan ko, ang hustisya na para sa amin. Kasi sayang po yong pinag-aralan namin. Para ano? Na magpapaloko po kami?” said Basbaño.
To their agency in the Philippines, Basbaño said, “Sana po huwag po ang pera ang tingnan ninyo. Tingnan ninyo kung anong mangyayari sa deni-deploy ninyong empleyado dito”.