Recruitment of Filipina sewer and maintenance staff has increased since the ban on the recruitment of Filipino housemaids was imposed, prompting the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) to impose stringent rules and checks regarding the recruitment of these women workers. Demand for Filipina sewers and maintenance workers have suddenly increased. More visas for these categories of workers are now being issued, according to POLO officials. To ascertain and make sure that women workers being recruited to work as sewers and maintenance staffs are really deployed to these jobs and not being shifted and forced by their employers to work as housemaids, or perform the dual tasks of being sewers and housemaids, POLO set up detailed and exhaustive investigation, guidelines and follow-ups before approving employers' application to hire these workers. Employers applying to recruit women sewers and maintenance workers are checked and interviewed by POLO officials to make sure they are really engaged in businesses where these workers should be working. Physical inspections of the shops and the establishments by POLO officials are among the steps before the applications to recruit are processed by the POLO. POLO is imposing all the precautionary measures — checks, counter-checks and thorough investigation to determine that employers are legitimately licensed to run dress shops and salons that require the services of these categories of women workers, a representative of a local recruiting agency said. Sewers are classified as skilled workers who perform jobs like dressmaker, cut and sew and tailor. The minimum basic salary of these workers is SR1,875, excluding food allowances and accommodation. Meanwhile, the deployment of Filipino maids to the Kingdom remains suspended as the Philippines insists on a $400 monthly salary which the Saudi employers want reduced to $210, according to the latest bulletin of the Philippine Overseas and Employment Administration (POEA). __
