At least 23 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have threatened to go on a hunger strike for alleged labor malpractices of their employer and inaction of the Philippine Labor Office (POLO) in Riyadh . The spokesman for the group, Gamma Villarta told the militant group Migrante-Middle East, that their demand for repatriation is currently being delayed at the Philippine embassy in Riyadh. The complainants. all women, are working for a rehabilitation center in Al-Baha in Jeddah. Their employer-sponsor represents a Riyadh-based outsourcing company that deployed them to work in a rehabilitation center, Migranted said. They told Migrante's Middel East coordinator, Leonard Monterona, that they have lost hope of getting the money due them and just wanted to be sent home, Villarta said. Monterona said the 23 OFWs have sought the help of the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah which supplied them food and other needs but has not done anything about their complaints as their employer is a Riyadh-based company under the jurisdiction of POLO in Riyadh . Monterona quoted the OFW as saying the POLO in Riyadh has asked them for the computation of their entitlements, including salary and food allowance they wanted to claim from their employer. From their own computation, some of them have SR7,000 unpaid wages while others who have been working from eight months up to one year have clams for SR10,000. The OFWs said their computation was rejected by their employer because the 23 OFWs have allegedly “breached” their contract. On the other hand, the 23 OFWs said it was employer, who supplied manpower to the rehabilitation center, who had breached their contract by not giving them the right amount of salary and accommodation as stipulated in their signed contract.
