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MANILA, Philippines?A manpower association official called on the government on Monday to work with the private sector on contingency plans for overseas Filipino workers prematurely terminated and repatriated because of the global economic crisis.
Loreto Soriano, executive director of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME), noted that the affected OFWs, such as from Taiwan and South Korea, have been returning to the country in trickles. He said the Department of Labor and Employment should convene a meeting with its partners in the overseas employment sector to ?harmonize? contingency plans for OFWs temporarily sidelined by the financial slump.
?In October, when we warned of the crisis? impact on OFWs, we did not anticipate that OFWS would be sent home this early. We said it would be about March 2009 when we will start feeling the pinch. Because of this development, it is important that the DOLE initiate dialogues on how best we in the private sector could help,? he said in a statement.
Soriano said that FAME already asked its member-associations to create their own database of prematurely retrenched OFWs that could be made available in a pool from where overseas employment recruiters can get qualified workers for jobs in their respective countries of deployment.
Soriano said recruiters for overseas employment have been bracing for more ?balikbayan? or repatriated OFWs this Christmas and in the first three months of 2009.
The FAME official expressed optimism that the Philippines could ride out the global financial storm, pointed out that ?only those OFWs who have professional and technical skills and expertise may escape the deluge of retrenchment that is expected but those who have no skills mostly in the services sector might lose their jobs.?
He singled out the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, which, he said, continued to exhibit a ?strong demand? for OFWs.
Soriano, however, observed that many OFWs have been selective and have been hesitating to work in Saudi Arabia, preferring Western countries, such as Canada, the United States and Australia, where salaries would be much higher.
He suggested that the DOLE could conduct counseling for prospective OFWs on the benefits of working in the Middle East.
?We have to change OFW attitudes about workplaces and biases against the Middle East and disregard our preferences in a time of crisis. Let?s encourage our OFWs to go to countries that have work and decent pay, rather than to countries that pay higher salaries but the jobs are not available,? he said.
