MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Labor and Employment has said it would be dispatching “reintegration teams” to companies employing overseas Filipino workers who face layoffs due to the global financial crisis.
In an interview at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the teams would be led by welfare officers from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and other staff from the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices that are located in various parts of the world.
The teams would be sent to work sites starting January in South Korea, Taiwan and other countries affected by the crisis, Roque said.
“We will get ahead with the situation by sending our staff into the worksites even before the OFWs get laid off or decide to head home. We will profile them, ask them what other jobs they could do and determine where they could be redeployed,” Roque told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
He said the skills and work experiences of the OFWs would also be assessed if they want to be redeployed for available jobs in the country where they are or in other countries.
For those who want to return home, they can either undergo skills retraining to help them get new jobs, whether local or overseas, or avail of government assistance in the form of microfinancing loans and livelihood programs, he added.
“In other words, we would have complete preparations for the laid-off OFWs. And the OFWs themselves could be acquainted with all the options waiting for them. They could make their decisions quickly,” Roque said.
For returning OFWs unable to make up their mind yet or those that would not be reached by the reintegration teams, Roque said they could go to the newly inaugurated Inter-Agency OFW Assistance Center that the DOLE opened at NAIA.
Roque, who attended the inauguration of the center, said OFWs could seek right at the airport further information on redeployment, retraining or livelihood assistance options.
In a related development, the militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa sought a subsidy for displaced OFWs as a complement to the proposal of other labor groups to train them in new jobs, such as teaching and health care in developed countries.
“We won’t argue against those who say that there are still greener pastures in the education and health sectors in the United States and Europe. However, we demand that as a complement that they be given a subsidy while in process of seeking new jobs,” PM spokesman Dennis Derige said in a statement.
Derige said PM’s chapter in Hong Kong is mobilizing OFWs facing retrenchment because of the crisis to seek at least P20,000 in government assistance to tide them over while looking for a new job.
“The OFWs are proud that they are called heroes but they do not intend to become martyrs. If OWWA grants P20,000 for burial benefit, we demand the same amount in unemployment assistance. OWWA should not wait for the OFWs to die before it acts; the agency can help the displace workers find a new life through an employment subsidy,” Derige explained.
Derige said it believes OWWA can afford the unemployment subsidy since the OFW Welfare Fund that the agency handles currently stands at around P10 billion excluding interest and investment earnings worth P2 billion every year.
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