Philippine labor offices in the Kingdom have yet to receive any formal working conditions to implement the reported agreement to resume recruitment of Filipino domestic workers, officials here said, Wednesday. Philippine Labor Attaché Adam A. Musa said labor officials in Saudi Arabia have not yet received an advisory or order from the Philippine Department of Labor, particularly from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), to resume the processing of requests to hire Filipino household service providers. “What we know is what we have read in press reports which state that an agreement has been reached between the Saudi and Philippine committees in Manila,” Musa said. “We have yet to receive instructions on the mechanics, if there are new guidelines, on how to proceed and process job order requests, the new documentation, and whether the deal will be with agencies,” Musa told the Saudi Gazette. Saudi recruitment agencies, through the Saudi National Recruitment Committee (SANARCOM), a unit under the Saudi Council of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, had said that there are about 60,000 pending applications requesting deployment of Filipino housemaids, a figure confirmed by the Saudi Embassy in Manila. Filipino labor officials here said, however, this figure is more than their estimates. “In the Eastern Province alone there are several thousand requests based on the surge of demand for housemaids since the Kingdom suspended the processing of employment contracts for new Filipino maids last March. This was done after complaints about the Philippines' requirement that Saudi employers submit information, such as disclosures of their income, number of family members, a map identifying the location of their homes, and police clearance,” Musa said. He said some of these requirements had been rescinded by the Philippine government. Philippine labor attachés and welfare officers are meeting in Dubai Thursday and Friday this week to discuss the status of the deployment of Filipino workers in the Gulf region, including the resumption of the hiring of Filipino domestic workers, Musa said. One crucial aspect in the deployment of Filipino housemaids is the question of salary. The Philippine government has ruled that the basic monthly salary of household service workers is $400 per month. SANARCOM is insisting that the prevailing market price of a housemaid's salary is between $250 to $300. POEA said it will not agree to anything lower than $400. Another issue to be resolved is the proposal of SANARCOM to establish Saudi mega recruitment companies to act as general service companies for recruiting and bringing in foreign workers, including housemaids and family drivers, from manpower exporting countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. Most local recruitment agencies have expressed disapproval of the setting up of the mega recruitment body. As proposed, employers will be directed to deal only with the mega recruitment companies, eliminating in the process individual recruiters and fly-by-night employment agencies, which are often seen as the root cause of the rift and misunderstanding between workers and employers. __
