Philippine Labour Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz stresses a point while Qatar Chamber board member Rashid al-Athba looks on. PICTURE: Nasser TK
Peter Alagos/Business Reporter
Visiting Philippine Labour Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has addressed issues involving the purported “delays” in the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers to Qatar as she stressed that documents for OFWs undergo a streamlined processing system.
Speaking before Qatar-based employers and foreign placement agencies at the Qatar Chamber yesterday, Baldoz clarified that the so-called delays could be traced to either the principal employer or the recruitment company.
“It would be very easy for us to look into that (delays) because all processes at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) have been streamlined and certified as ISO-compliant quality management system,” Baldoz said.
She added, “For every transaction, they (POEA) they already have a list of very clear documents required and the required process cycle time.”
This was seconded by POEA Administrator Hans Cacdac, who stressed that it would only take five to six days to register a foreign employer or principal and two to three days to document a Filipino worker.
He also said the POEA had recently discussed issues involving “grey areas” raised by Philippine recruiters when streamlining the documentation process.
“We had agreed to facilitate the process as long as the Philippine recruiter could show us in writing and guarantee that the particular ‘grey area’ that was not in the rules is a legitimate transaction and a legitimate type of work for a Filipino worker,” Cacdac said.
He also stressed that the POEA has a special set of rules for Filipino housemaids, which he noted are “stricter,” according to Philippine laws and POEA rules and regulations.
Labour attaché Paul de Jesus also pointed out that some cases involved a one or two-day delay but this was due to missing documents pending the submission of the foreign placement agency or principal employer.
“Complete documents submitted by agencies and employers are released in the afternoon following a two-day processing cycle…But you also have to allow us also the opportunity to make certain verifications and to validate the document submitted,” he emphasised.
He also stressed that documents should be “clean” and contains no erasures: “Documents that contain erasures or suspicious changes will be returned to the filer.”
During her visit to Qatar, Baldoz also met with HE the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Abdullah Saleh Mubarak al-Khulaifi to discuss issues affecting OFWs.
Baldoz told Gulf Times that during the meeting they have agreed to convene on January 2015 the joint labour committee, which was formed in 2007.
Asked if she had the chance to glean Qatar’s new labour laws, Baldoz said, “Not yet.”
“We will look at their labour laws and if anything there would be advantageous to our workers then we have no reason to apply amendments,” she pointed out.
She added, “For policies that appear to be conflicting with our laws, we would need time to reconcile them to determine how they would be applied. We would also like to know what are the terms and conditions on recruitment, selection, employment of domestic workers here because this is not part of their labour laws and that is the big difference.”
