POEA: Beware of recruitment agencies with cancelled or suspended licenses

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) warned overseas jobseekers to be careful in dealing with recruitment agencies with cancelled or suspended licenses that are still actively recruiting for overseas jobs.

The POEA, as of September 14, 2009, has cancelled the licenses of 454 recruitment agencies since the start of its operations and placed 44 others under preventive suspension. For 2008 and the first eight months of 2009 alone, the POEA cancelled 76 licenses and suspended or fined 57 agencies as a result of recruitment violations.

Please click HERE to verify status of recruitment agencies.

What’s Good with E-Passport?

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary said Alberto Romulo overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will no longer be humiliated with the new electronic passport or the e-passport.

Secretary Romulo also added that e-passport will be hassle-free and spares OFWs from embarrassment in other countries.

According to the secretary, OFWs will be waved with hardly any questions asked and can just pass through the immigration of the host country without any problem – unlike previous instances when many of them are held there for a long time. And if they will be asked, it would only be something like how long they will be staying in the country.

The e-passport will be availed within three to four days for Php950 each.

The DFA also clarified that both the manually scripted passports and machine-readable passports will remain valid until their expiration date.

Source:
GMANews.TV

PhilHealth now caters OFWs in Hong Kong

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is proud to announce that their services including membership updates and renewal, claims and benefits, and premium remittance concerns.

PhilHealth mobile officers will get in touch with Filipino organizations in Hong Kong so that OFWs will be informed with the agency’s programs and services.

PhilHealth Vice President and Bicol regional director Orlando Inigo explained that a confinement of an OFW shall be paid based on the benefit rates of a Level 3 hospital, with the validity period of his contribution being the eligibility requirement.

Aside from Hong Kong, PhilHealth will also extends its programs and services in Macau, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, OFWs hot destinations.

OFWs Beware of Reprocessing Scheme

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and would be OFWs are warned to keep away from recruiters who are using reprocessing or repro scheme.

According to the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc. (PASEI) President Victor Fernandez Jr, repro means using a particular job order to recruit a workers but when the worker reached in the work place will be given a different job.

Fernandez cited an example that most Filipinas were recruited as dishwasher or dressmaker but they will end up working as domestic helpers.

“The malpractice of repro is being utilized by some unscrupulous agencies to circumvent the household reform package instituted by the (Department of Labor and Employment) whereby the salaries of workers will increase so with the age requirement," said Fernandez.

Campaign Against Repro (CARE) a memorandum of agreement signed by PASEI with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) which aims to find better solution to the increasing numbers of repro cases.

“What we are waiting now is for the POEA to implement this as soon as possible. POEA should crack down and punish those disobedient agencies which have been participating in ‘repro job orders," said the recruitment leader.

Nini Lanto, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration officer in Jeddah, said 90% of OFW runaways in the shelter at the Philippine Consulate General compound are victims of repro and most of them are domestic helpers.

“It’s high time that all responsible agencies in the recruitment sector must work together to stop the malpractice of repro," said Lanto.

Source:
Kimberly Jane T. Tan
GMANews.TV

Nurses, Doctors and Laboratory Technicians to Yemen

ALORDHAI HOSPITAL, a government hospital in Yemen needs qualified applicants for the following positions:

No.	Position	Salary Range* in US$	Requirements
10	ICU NURSES	700 – 1000	Specialized in Post Cardiac Surgery with at least 4 years experience
10	NURSES	700 – 1000	For CCU or Coronary Care Unit with at least 4 years experience
3	SCRUB NURSES	700 – 1000	With at least 4 years experience
2	DOCTORS	1500 - 2500	Specializing in Intensive Care Unit with at least 4-5 years experience
2	TECHNICIANS CATH. LAB	500 - 700	At least 3 years of experience

* Basic offer depends on applicant's length of relevant experience

CVs of qualified applicants will be endorsed to employer for evaluation/selection

QUALIFIED APPLICANTS may personally submit the following requirements:
detailed resume with job description,
school credentials,
employment certificates,
board certificate,
board rating,
PRC card,
passport copy and
two (2) pieces 2X2 recent picture

At the Manpower Registry Division, Window I, ground floor, Blas F. Ople
Building (Formerly POEA Bldg.), Ortigas Avenue corner EDSA, Mandaluyong City or REGISTER ONLINE at www.poea.gov.ph or www.eregister.poea.gov.ph

Deadline of submission is on 18 September 2009 EXTENDED (Please contact the POEA for complete details) =as of Dec. 16, 2009=

Present original documents, if submitting requirements personally. Those who will register online will be asked to present original documents for authentication of written information before forwarding the resume to the employer.

Source:
POEA

OFW ‘access centers’ in malls

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to set up “access centers" for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in SM Retail, Inc. and SM Prime Holdings, Inc.

This “access centers can help OFWs to educate and fight illegal recruiters. They can verify licensed agencies and job orders, attend pre-employment and anti-illegal recruitment seminars, and secure information and education materials with these “access center.”
“The partnership with the private sector is another strategy in the government’s implementation of a massive and extensive information campaign on the realities of overseas employment, including illegal recruitment," said POEA chief Jennifer Manalili.Manalii also said the center would also eventually facilitate documents of returning OFWs.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque also signed a separate MOU with Banco de Oro to teach OFWs how to use and remit their earnings.Kimberly Jane T. Tan
GMANews.TV