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MANILA, Philippines--Local recruitment agencies that send Filipino workers to Taiwan factories said on Sunday they had started the redeployment process for workers displaced by the financial crisis plaguing the island, as part of their commitment to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
In a letter to POEA Administrator Jennifer Manalili, Jackson Gan, president of Pilipino Manpower Agencies Accredited to Taiwan (Pilmat), said the group took the initial steps to help the overseas Filipino workers retrenched in Taiwanese factory closures.
Pilmat said the terminated OFWs were given return tickets and entry visas to Taiwan in case their old jobs would be available again within the next six months.
Pilmat has also been encouraging the retrenched OFWs to remain in Taiwan since other factories in need of workers have been talking to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office and the Philippine Labor Council in Taipei.
Those who would qualify would be smoothly transferred to their new jobs "without any cost to them," Gan said.
He said Pilmat and its counterpart in Taiwan have been working with the Philippine and Taiwanese governments to find "better solutions" for the affected OFWs.
According to POEA, some 2,500 OFWs had returned to the Philippines since the financial crisis began in 2008 in Taiwan, and about 5,000 more were expected to be laid off in the first quarter of 2009.
In a statement, Gan said the OFWs who had returned were being assisted by Pilmat with their money claims since their contracts were unexpectedly pre-terminated.
OFWs who had filed adjudication petitions with the POEA have been scheduled for conciliation talks with the agencies concerned, he said.
"Pilmat is requesting those workers with claims to be patient since some agencies with large volumes of displaced workers are finding it difficult to respond immediately to the demand, and the sudden decrease in OFW deployments to Taiwan had affected their businesses," Gan said.
He said Pilmat also asked money lending companies catering to OFWs to lower the interest they charge or even exempt them from having to pay interest in the meantime.
Gan said Pilmat was negotiating with POEA for the exemption of Filipino caretakers deployed to Taiwan from having to pay placement fees to their recruiters. The fees resulted in the decline of caretaker deployment to Taiwan in the past few years, he said.
"A breakthrough on this issue would allow for the deployment of more Filipinos with the opening of 20,000 caretaker positions in Taiwan that would more than offset our factory worker losses," Gan said.
