More suspensions for rogue Philippine recruitment agencies

Deceiving workers and circumventing recruitment and deployment rules has earned two Philippine recruitment agencies a suspension today, and suspension for another three last week.
Mon, 3 Nov 2014
Deceiving workers and circumventing recruitment and deployment rules has earned two Philippine recruitment agencies a suspension today, and suspension for another three last week.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said in a statement today [3 November] that Trustworthy International Manpower Corp and Filscandia Manpower Recruitment Services Inc were found to have “committed misrepresentation” in deploying household workers to the United Arab Emirates.

There were three complainants against Trustworthy International. According to the POEA, they said they left the Philippines using visas for foot spa technicians but were made to work as domestic workers upon arrival in Dubai.

They ran away from their respective employers, complaining of heavy work loads and a lower-than-promised salary, according to statements given to the POEA.

In a sworn statement, the complainant against Filscandia claimed she was recruited and deployed as security guard at a supermarket in Dubai. She was, however, sent to a household to work as babysitter on a salary less than half what was promised to her.

POEA administrator Hans Cacdac said the agencies used a reprocessing scheme — submitting for processing by the POEA documents with a certain profession but actually sending the worker as a household worker, therefore circumventing the rules on recruitment and deployment of household services workers.

A preventative suspension was also imposed on the recruitment agencies’ foreign principals and employers, meaning they, as well as the agencies, cannot engage in the recruitment and placement of overseas Filipino workers until further ordered by the POEA.

On Friday [31 October], Cacdac warned overseas-bound workers not to leave the country with two different visas.

His comments were made as he ordered the suspension of another three recruitment agencies after their recruits were barred from leaving the country for possession of two different visas.

The recruitment agencies were Hiro Global Manpower, CAZ International and Al-Walih International Manpower Services Company.

Cacdac said the “double visa deployment scheme” was a favourite of “greedy recruiters” and used to bypass protective mechanisms set by the government to protect workers from abuse and exploitation.

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