A NEW welfare insurance coverage scheme for all Overseas Filipino Workers has been proposed for the approval of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo by the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (PASEI), an organization of over 750 licensed recruiting and employment agencies. Victor E.R. Fernandez, Jr., president of PASEI, called upon President Arroyo to approve the compulsory welfare insurance in time with the upcoming second meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) to be held in Manila from October 27-30. “The welfare insurance scheme is the best protection for our overseas workers in this time of uncertainty in the international labor market emerging as a result of the global financial crisis,” said Fernadez in a telephonic interview with the Saudi Gazette. He said the welfare insurance is free of cost to all overseas Filipino workers and that the insurance premium will be paid by the employment agencies or by the employing companies. “We have conducted studies which say that a $3 monthly premium is enough to provide the coverage for all our overseas workers during the duration of their employment,” Fernandez said. Under the scheme, a Filipino worker with a seven-month or below working contract will be covered with $20 payment premium, $35 for those with a 13-month and below contract, and $55 for those with a two-year contract. Those who will be covered by the proposed welfare insurance will avail the following benefits and coverage programs: accidental death benefit of up to $15,000, survivor's benefit (in case of natural death) of up to $10,000, permanent total disablement of up to $7,500, repatriation of human remains, including burial, of up to $15,000, repatriation due to emergency evacuation and legitimate cause of up to $1,000, subsistence allowance of $100 per month for six months totaling US$600, and legitimate monetary claims for unpaid/rightful and just wages of up to $4,500. Fernandez said that a number of overseas employment agencies are providing welfare insurance schemes to workers deployed on voluntary basis. “It is high time that the government makes compulsory for all deploying agencies to cover their workers,” he said. “With a presidential executive order to implement it, this protective insurance program for Filipino migrants is the best protection against any abuses against them and reduce, if not eliminate, the irregular global migration of guest workers,” Fernandez said. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) already provides insurance coverage called the Voluntary Membership Program (VMP) for the deployed overseas workers. __
