PH-US ink pact to protect Filipino migrant workers’ rights

Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines signed an agreement with the United States Department of Labor (DOL) Monday in a bid to ensure that US laws on the rights of Filipino migrant workers were enforced.

In a statement released by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Wednesday, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose L. Cuisia, together with ambassadors from Honduras, Peru, and Ecuador, signed the accord with US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at the Washington headquarters of the US DOL.

Under the agreement, Philippine consulates in the US will coordinate with representatives from the US DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) in providing migrant workers with information on US health, safety and wage laws.

“The agreement aims to ensure that migrant workers are aware of the right to safe workplaces and to receive full payment of the wages owed to them under US laws,” the statement read.

“We assure DOL we will do our part in ensuring the dissemination of helpful information to Filipino workers concerning their rights to a safe and healthy working environment, and fair wages and working hours in the US, and in assisting them to seek redress when such rights are violated,” Cuisia said in the statement.

As of 2010 US Census, the number of Filipinos in the US increased by 44.5 percent from 2,364,815 in 2000 to 3,416,840. The US DOL’s WHD is tasked to administer and enforce laws that establish minimally established working standards for wages and working conditions in the US.