POEA's revised policies on domestic helpers opposed
FAME-PANSEA members are joined by OFWs in
opposing POEA's revised policies on domestic
helpers.
Thousands of overseas domestic helpers (DH) and their sympathizers conducted a nationwide mass action and peaceful rally on January 15, 2007 in protest of the new regulations being implemented by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), together with TESDA and OWWA.
The Federated Associations of Manpower Exporters (FAME) came to sympathize behind the cause of the Domestic Helpers and staged a rally in Manila at Liwasang Bonifacio and then proceeded with a program at the DOLE Office in Intramuros. FAME is the umbrella organization of eleven big organizations of different recruitment agencies in the country.
On the other hand, the rally in Iloilo was spearheaded by the Panay Negros Service Exporters Association, Inc., (PANSEA) which is composed of various licensed recruitments agencies based in Iloilo City under the umbrella of FAME on January 15, 2007 in front of the POEA-Iloilo.
The rally was organized in response to the denial of the Association's request for the deferment and review for revision of the POEA Memorandum Circular No. 10 and 11, series of 2006, until March 31, 2007, until all sectors were consulted and informed of the new policies, and the TESDA and OWWA mechanics and systems for issuance of COC's are in place all over the country.
The FAME-PANSEA viewed the new policies repressive, hard and duplication of old rules for the hiring, processing and deployment of domestic helpers, among which the setting of the age limit of a DH to 25 years old; requiring the DH to undergo assessment by the TESDA; requiring the DH to undergo training on language and culture by the OWWA; and prohibiting the licensed agency from collecting from the deployed DH a placement fee equivalent to one-month salary.
In its appeal for deferment, FAME-PANSEA explained that the new POEA policies implemented last December 16, 2006, were counter productive for it will unduly restrict and prejudice the deployment of qualified and quality domestic helpers, and in effect will turn many productive OFW-DH unemployed.
FAME-PANSEA believed that the new POEA policies would affect the overseas recruitment agency initially, however, agency will simply change business to deploying skills and professional workers only, job orders for DH will come in trickle, until none.