A group of Philippine international job recruiters this week stopped sending Filipino domestic helpers to Singapore, part of a campaign to end the collection of placement fees from migrant workers. Such fees, banned by Philippine authorities but still continuing, can add up to the equivalent of eight months of a household worker’s salary. There are more than 150 recruitment agencies in the Philippines sending household helpers to Singapore, while some 300 Singapore employment agencies handle Filipino workers. Regulations of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, or POEA, the government agency that tracks and oversees the deployment of Filipino workers abroad, has prohibited the collection of placement fees from household service workers since 2007. Those fees, including travel and training costs, should be shouldered by employers. POEA records show that 136,695 Filipino workers traveled to take up employment to Singapore in 2012, with 15,759 of them meant to work as household help. Ms. Sermonia said they met with their Singapore counterparts in September last year to seek an end of the practice, which has left helpers working without getting paid for a long period. The agreement last year was that the practice will end once those in the pipeline are processed, but even after that the collection of fees continued, she said. “Employers just give household service workers SGD20 as allowance. They aren’t paid for up to eight months,” she said.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 02:22:51 +0000
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