By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter
A delegation from the Philippines will meet officials of Qatar’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs today for the convening of the Qatar-Philippines Joint Labour Committee in Doha, labour attaché Leopoldo De Jesus has said.
Some of the issues that will be discussed include recent policies in recruiting workers in the Philippines and Qatar, development of electronic recruiting guidelines, regulation of recruitment cost, development of dispute settlement guidelines, household service workers agreement and protocol and contract, implementation of the comprehensive information and orientation programme under the
Abu Dhabi dialogue.
Philippine labour secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has sent overseas employment administrator Hans Leo Cacdac and a number of other labour
officials to Qatar.
“They will meet their counterpart in the ministry here to discuss matters of mutual concern arising out of the implementation of the two countries’ bilateral agreement on manpower and the additional protocol signed by both parties in 2009,” said De Jesus.
He noted that the two-day meeting will be convened at the office of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Doha. A scheduled visit to the labour camps at the Industrial Area is also expected to take place
today after the meeting.
De Jesus said secretary Baldoz is looking forward to a “productive result” of the meeting that aims to ensure the protection and welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Ambassador Crescente Relacion and other embassy officials are also expected to join the
delegation at the meeting.
Relacion hopes that a provision in the bilateral labour agreement between Qatar and the Philippines will be implemented to further protect OFWs from “contract
substitution”.
This irregularity in recruiting Filipino workers is resorted to by unscrupulous employers who are colluding with some recruitment agencies back home.
During her visit to Qatar in November last year, secretary Baldoz met with HE the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Abdullah Saleh Mubarak al-Khulaifi to discuss issues affecting OFWs.
“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 said.
The Philippine government will focus on sending more professionals and skilled workers to Qatar and other GCC countries this year, it is learnt.
The Philippine overseas labour office noted an increasing number of professionals such as doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers, and architects have been deployed to the country in the past months.
Leopoldo De Jesus, labour attachu00e9, Philippine embassy
