Kuwait needs 12,000 OFWs--labor attache
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:36:00 01/06/2009
Filed Under: Overseas Employment, Labor, World Financial Crisis
MANILA, Philippines --As the ongoing financial crisis continues to take its toll on jobs in many parts of the world, oil-rich Kuwait is going to need 12,000 overseas Filipino workers, Philippine labor attaché to the Middle East country Josephus Jimenez said.
"Kuwait is not a credit economy, it is a cash economy, and it will continue to need people for jobs in hotels, malls, fast-food chains, and hospitals," he said.
"Replacement requirements for jobs in the oil and construction industries continue," he added.
Jimenez said he can easily fill the 12,000 jobs as he signs 200 contracts every day.
At the same time, the labor attaché said the Philippines is veering away from "the five Ds -- dirty, difficult, dangerous, degrading, and deceptive."
He said Filipinos remain the preferred nationality, receiving more than the usual rates.
However, recruiter Paul Chua of A & C International Resources Inc. which sends nurses and security guards to Kuwait said the Philippines' insistence on bigger salaries is turning off some employers.
For instance, Chua said, his company was able to get a contract for the supply of 500 security guards to the international Group 4 Al-Sahem security company.
But at the insistence of some security guards already deployed there that they were entitled to more benefits, their contract has been cancelled.
"We have lost a potential of 500 jobs. We have 11 security guards who went through the process, quit work, took medical exams, and given visas, but this complaint by a handful of guards complicated matters," he said.
The labor attaché said that of the 140,000 OFWs in Kuwait, 60,000 are household service workers.
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