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Recruitment Agencies Violating Placement Fee Policies Face Penalty – POEA

By on July 11, 2012

Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac yesterday said the POEA will cancel the license of recruitment agencies found collecting excessive placement fees from applicants or charging  placement fees from workers seeking employment in countries which have laws that prohibit the same.

Cacdac also advised Filipino jobseekers to pay the placement fee only if they have signed  an employment contract and a receipt corresponding to the amount paid is issued to them, and to avoid licensed recruiters that continue to defy the government’s placement fee policywhich is clearly defined in various promulgations.

DOLE Department Order No. 34, Series of 1996, POEA Governing Board Resolution No. 2, series of 1998, and POEA Memorandum Circular No. 14, Series of 1999 authorize a
recruitment agency to collect from its hired workers “an amount equivalent to one month salary, exclusive of documentation and processing costs”.

Section 2 b, Rule 1, Part 6 of the 2002 POEA Rules and Regulations prohibits “charging or accepting directly or indirectly any amount greater than that specified in the schedule of allowable fees prescribed by the Secretary, or making a worker pay any amount greater than that actually received by him as a loan or advance.”

Cacdac said there is total prohibition on charging placement fees from Filipino household service workers, seafarers, and workers for deployment to countries which disallows placement fee collection. Charging placement fees from Filipino household service workers is prohibited under POEA  Governing Board Resolution No. 6, Series of 2006.Section 2 c, Rule 1, Part 6 of the POEA Rules defines as a recruitment violation any act of “charging or collecting placement fee for deployment to countries where the prevailing system, either by law, policy or practice, do not allow the charging or collection of placement and recruitment fees”. The POEA Rules also exempt seafarers from paying placement fees.

Countries like United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and the Netherlands do not allow the  collection of placement fee by recruitment agencies from foreign workers because the employer is paying the cost of placement and recruitment services. The prohibition is also applicable to agencies that are deploying workers to the Canada provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

Cacdac said that hiring of foreign workers in occupations that usually require a high school diploma or a maximum of 2 years of job-specific training (level C and D) under the Pilot Project of the Government of Canada is also covered by the prohibition on collection of placement fee. Under the prevailing policy of the Canada government, employers shall cover all recruitment costs related to the hiring of foreign workers.

The ‘no placement fee’ policy also covers agencies deploying workers to the U.S.A.,  including Guam, Cacdac said.

POEA Memorandum Circular No.10, Series of 2009 orders that licensed recruitment agencies recruiting Filipino workers under the H2B program for the United States, including Guam, are strictly prohibited from charging any placement and recruitment fees from Filipino workers bound for these destinations.

The United States’ Department of Homeland Security on 18 January 2009, has implemented regulatory changes to the H2B visa classification used for foreign workers
seeking employment in the United States and Guam. Under the new rules, the cost of  recruitment of these workers must be borne by employers and the charging or collection of  placement fee by an employer, agent, facilitator, recruiter or similar employment service provider from workers under the H2B visa category or temporary skilled labor is illegal.Cacdac said violation of the “no placement fee” policy is a serious administrative offense with a penalty of cancellation of license under Section 1-A (5) of Rule IV, Part VI of the POEA Rules and Regulations Governing the Recruitment and Employment of Land based Workers.

Cacdac further urged applicants report to POEA any recruitment agency that charges excessive placement fees or collect fees which are not sanctioned by other countries.

Source: POEA

Luzy Bumanlag says:
September 19, 2012 at 7:18 am

star newspapaer. september 06,2012
PETALING JAYA: The shortage of maids is set to get worse with the Philippine embassy here tightening the rules for new agencies to bring in maids from the country.

The changes come in the wake of the Philippine government's decision last week to phase out the sending of its citizens overseas to work as domestic helpers.

Sources in the industry said the embassy was no longer giving accreditation to new maid agencies.

However, the embassy's labour attach Dr Alicia Santos, told The Star that accreditation for new recruitment agencies to bring in Filipino domestic helpers had not been stopped but it would not be easy to get as before.

“Not everyone who applies will get the endorsement. We are becoming stricter to ensure that agencies abide by all requirements and terms,” she said.

Dr Santos said existing agencies could continue operating but the embassy was conducting a thorough assessment on all of them.

“Many agencies which pledged to follow regulations have not been keeping to their word,” she added.

Dr Santos said there had also been discussions on imposing a moratorium, but nothing had been finalised.

On whether accredited agencies would be stripped of their status if they were found to have breached rules, she said the matter was still being discussed with higher authorities.

“The major issues faced with employment agencies here concern payment of salaries as well as the welfare and protection of our citizens,” she said.

Last week, the Philippine government directed the Overseas Employment Agency to reduce the deployment of Filipinas to work as hired help in foreign households, in stages, over the next five years.

The programme to slow down and stop the migration of domestic workers abroad is aimed at protecting Filipinas from abuses.

The phase-out plan would affect about 180 countries where Filipinas work as maids or nannies.

However, the Philippine government said it might allow such workers to parts of Europe where salaries were high for certain types of domestic labour.

The Philippine embassy here cited the country's improved economy and the availability of quality jobs at home as the reasons for the decision.

It said those seeking jobs as domestic workers were often over-qualified, adding that Philippines preferred to send only skilled and semi-skilled workers abroad.

Dr Santos said the demand for Filipina maids in Malaysia had increased since 2009 as they were highly trained in performing household chores and could speak English.

The minimum wage for Filipina domestic workers is set at US$400 (RM1,240) per month, compared with between RM600 and RM800 for Indonesians.

The number of Filipina domestic workers in the country reportedly rose from 4,000 in 2009 to about 10,000 currently.

According to the Philippines' Overseas Employment Agency records, 499,495 household service workers went abroad over the past six years.

More than 70,000 of them secured jobs overseas in the first half of this year.

please po..sna m2gunana nmn po ninyo ang aming shod ay 900 ringgit deduction kmi ng 6months, ng 700 ringgit.PMA po aming agency d2 malysia wla n po kmi mgwa dhil nandito n po kmi.umaasa po kmi n inyo kmi bibigyan ng 2long sa liit ng aming shod d2.aasahan po namin ang posibilidad n mgtaas ang aming shod.maraming slamt po..sa kinuukulan..

Dexter Pardillada Tapdasan says:
August 31, 2012 at 2:17 pm

Do Japan needs a placement fee for an engineer's visa? Even if the employer had payed the recruitment agency as their service fee and document processing fee?