Manila, Taipei in direct-hiring deal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:22:00 08/22/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) bound for Taiwan may soon be able to deal directly with employers instead of recruitment agencies as the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) and the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) have adopted rules on direct hiring.
MECO and TECO signed joint implementing guidelines of a memorandum of understanding for a Special Hiring Program for Taiwan (SHPT) at the recent Philippines-Taiwan Third Joint Labor Conference held in Cebu City.
MECO estimates show that OFWs could save up to NT$100,000 or some P145,000 in brokerage expenses through the SHPT, aside from loosening brokers’ grip on Taiwan’s market for foreign labor.
Special hiring, also called “direct hiring” and “name hiring,” enables Taiwanese employers to hire Filipinos without going through labor brokers and recruiters in the Philippines or Taiwan.
The program also allows Taiwanese employers in the Philippines to hire Filipinos through the Philippine government rather than private agencies.
MECO managing director and resident representative Antonio I. Basilio and TECO representative Donald C.T. Lee signed the guidelines for the MOU, which Philippine Overseas Employment Agency Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz and Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs Director General Chen-Min witnessed.
The guidelines provide that the SHPT would cover industrial or factory workers, construction workers, household workers, caregivers, caretakers and institutional nursing workers and fishermen.
Further, the guidelines provide that professional and skilled overseas OFWs would be placed under the facilitative services of MECO.
This also means that MECO would assist in an information dissemination campaign to encourage workers hired under the SHPT who had run away from their legitimate employers to surrender.
For those who surrendered or were detained, MECO would help facilitate their immediate return to the Philippines.
In cases of disputes between employers and employees, the guidelines provide that these be settled on site through the intervention of Taiwan’s Foreign Workers Counseling Center in coordination with MECO. Ronnel W. Domingo; with editing by INQUIRER.net
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