DMW meets PH recruiters over OFW salaries, safety 

Inquirer file photo/ABC

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) met with several local recruitment agencies on Friday to discuss the salaries and safety of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Arab countries after the death of two Filipino women in Kuwait over the past few weeks.

There were no details on the discussion on salaries pending further meetings, but the DMW said they had a thorough review of the current guidelines on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait.

One of the actions they discussed was including specific terms and job descriptions in the employment contract and shortening the workers’ duration of employment from two years to one year.

READ: Foul play eyed in OFW’s death in Kuwait

Another was urging the recruitment agencies to be vigilant in the monitoring of the status and conditions of the OFWs they deployed and to be more responsive in urgent cases and emergencies.

“Our goal in policymaking is not just for the sake of doing policy, but to actually protect our people and save lives,” DMW Undersecretary Patricia Yvonne Caunan said in a statement.

“The overall value that we have is to give importance to the OFWs, who should be the center of everything that we do,” she added.

“The [Philippine recruitment agencies] were also reminded to always ensure the return of their deployed workers at the end of their contract and report erring foreign recruitment agencies to prevent them from employing Filipino workers and protect them from any possible exploitative and abusive situations,” the DMW said.

Some of the agencies that attended the dialogue were the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc., the Philippine Recruitment Agencies Accredited to Saudi Arabia, and the Coalition of Licensed Recruitment Agencies for Domestic and Service Workers.

The DMW and the industry stakeholders agreed to the idea of increasing the OFWs salary of domestic workers and to include their families in their pre-departure seminars for the whole families to further understand the risks and opportunities of working abroad.