OFW welfare group vs compulsory insurance

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

By Veronica Uy, (INQUIRER.net) 10/13/2009
Found at http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20091013-229848/OFW-welfare-group-vs-compulsory-insurance

MANILA, Philippines — The Center for Migrant Advocacy, which looks after the welfare of and policy issues concerning overseas Filipino workers, on Tuesday opposed the proposed law requiring compulsory insurance coverage for OFWs.

Members of the bicameral conference committee to amend Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers Rights could not agree on this either.

CMA executive director Ellene Sana said that while the intention to cover all OFWs is good, it is bound to follow the fate of the $25 membership fee for Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

The fee is supposed to be paid by the employer, but is usually paid by the OFWs themselves.

Sana said the government—not private insurance companies, recruiters, or OFWs—should provide OFW protection.

She said the present voluntary insurance coverage should stay. The proposal “opens up another multi-million dollar insurance business at $75 per OFW. Madaming kikita ditto (Many will earn from this),” she said.

The proposed bill being discussed in the bicameral conference committee provides that in addition to performance bond by recruiter, each worker shall be covered by compulsory insurance policy at no cost to worker; $15,000 survivor’s benefit for accidental death; $10,000 for natural death; $7,500 for permanent total disability; repatriation cost in case of job termination or death; $100 a month in subsistence allowance benefit for six months for migrant worker involved in a case or litigation for protection of his or her rights in receiving country.

The bill also provides that claims resulting from employer’s liability to worker shall have an insurance coverage amounting to three months for every year of service.

In case of workers recruited through government-to-government mechanisms, the Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration shall provide a guarantee fund for monetary claims out of breach of contract.

Rehires and direct hires may get insurance coverage from employers or pay these themselves.

Combating Abuse of Migrant Workers

Monday, August 24, 2009

The following article can be found at http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/200982294710659742.html

Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad speaks to "Jessica", a Sri Lankan domestic worker, who says she has been physically abused by her employer in Lebanon.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates that some 200,000 domestic workers from Asian and African countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and Nepal, arrive in Beirut with little idea where they will be employed.

Najla Shahda, of Caritas Lebanon, part of a global humanitarian network, believes that migrant workers go through similar problems throughout the Middle East.

"Agencies are recruiting them in their countries of origin and they are not explaining to them what their rights are and if they run into a problem, they are not telling them how they can communicate with their embassies," Shahda said.

Employment agencies usually draw up contracts which fall short of existing labour standards and fail to secure migrant workers' rights.

As a result, advocacy groups say, many end up in abusive situations.In a 1998 review of human rights abuses around the world, the UN raised alarm that foreign workers in Lebanon had their passports confiscated.

The situation does not appear to have improved since then.

There have been recent reports that many domestic workers in Lebanon endure long hours on the job, no days off, and being locked up inside the house.

Caritas has set up a shelter for domestic workers like "Jessica" who have escaped from their employees.

There they are given legal advice and seen by social workers.

The Lebanese government recently introduced a new standardised contract, which agencies must use when bringing workers from overseas.

Ali Berro, an adviser to the Minister of Labour on issues pertaining to foreign domestic workers, says that employers are now obliged to sign the new contract. He explained that the new contract gives employee the basic rights that are demanded by international labour laws.

Maurizio Bussi of the International Labour Organisation says there is a lack of legislation protecting the rights of workers in Lebanon.

However, he considers the government's new contract a "first, but very important first step".