Wage Hike for OFWs in Saudi Soon

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said that the salary Filipino workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) may increase plus other employment benefits for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said that the labor officials in KSA are currently reviewing the employment policies including the wage rates of OFWs in Saudi.

“Our labor attachés, welfare officers and other concerned personnel in Saudi Arabia met last week to discuss the wage rates of Filipino workers in different job categories,” Brion said.

Other matters that the officials discussed include the jurisdiction of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) with regards to case management, contract verification and processing.

Brion said that the operational systems and policies affecting OFWs in Saudi Arabia should be reviewed and synchronized.

The Middle East countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, rank first as top destination for Filipino workers. The statistic reported by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) in 2005 shows that there are almost 200,000 new hires and rehires OFWs are working in the Kingdom.

More than 70% of total deployment of OFWs in the Middle East is in Saudi. Other popular destinations and with great number of OFWs in the region are United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Qatar.

This article was first published in www.ofwguide.com on December 26, 2006