Recruitment agency’s licence cancelled

POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac photo from his official Twitter account.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has cancelled the license of a recruitment agency for violating the government’s policy on household service workers.

POEA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac ordered the cancellation of the license of Precise Global Manpower Services Recruitment Agency Inc. following a complaint from one Michelle Magayaga, a Filipino worker in Dubai.

Cacdac said that based on the evidence presented by Magayaga, the recruitment agency was found liable for acts of misrepresentation relative to her recruitment and employment.

Magayaga applied and signed an employment contract with Precise Global as a waitress but was made to work as household service worker in Dubai, he said.

Cacdac said the agency also violated the prohibition on collection of placement fee from household service workers when it charged the complainant a P10,000 placement fee knowing beforehand that she would be deployed as a household worker.

Magayaga was paid 800AED a month, roughly equivalent to US$210, which is way below the mandated minimum monthly salary of US$400 for household workers.

Precise Global is also liable for falsifying the documents of the complainant in violation of Section 2 (o) of the POEA Rules.

“Magayaga applied as a waitress and was issued an employment visa for the said position.  However, Precise Global gave her another visa indicating her job as housemaid, which entails submission of a different set of requirements ,” Cacdac said.

He added that the agency was also found to have deployed the complainant to an employer not accredited by the POEA.

“Recruitment agencies are directed to report to  the POEA any significant incident concerning the overseas Filipino workers  but the agency did not inform the administration that Magayaga ran away from her employer,” he said.

According to Cacdac, apart from cancellation of license, the recruitment agency faces other penalties for other offenses, including misrepresentation, falsification of travel documents and deployment to non-accredited principals.

Each of these offense has a corresponding penalty of four months suspension of license or a fine of P200,000.

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