Philippines: Recruiters seek clarification on Korea deployment policy

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Recruiters seek clarification on Korea deployment policy

Article posted March 08, 2007 - 07:11 PM

SIX licensed placement agencies are seeking clarification from the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on the recruitment
policy observed in South Korea in view of an earlier report that only the
government agency is authorized to process Korea-bound workers' contracts.
The POEA issued a statement last week that Korea has stopped hiring
through private recruiters since it terminated the Alien Industrial
Trainee System (AITS) on January 1, 2007. As a result, POEA Administrator
Rosalinda Baldoz said in a statement, Philippine licensed agencies that
used to hire trainees for Korea could no longer recruit workers under the
trainee scheme.

Korea has shifted to the Employment Permit System (EPS), which is a
government-to-government recruitment system, thereby doing away with
private recruitment. This scheme is observed in eight other countries such
as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cambodia, Uzbekistan
and Pakistan. Under this scheme, Korean employers can only get foreign
workers legally through the EPS. The POEA is the only government agency
authorized to implement the scheme in the Philippines. Korea had abolished
the trainee scheme and stopped issuing trainee visas since Jan 1, 2007,
Dr. Yang-Dal Kim, president of Human Resources Development Service of
Korea, said after meeting with Baldoz recently.

But the six licensed agencies -- Dahlzhen International Services, Inc.
(DISI), Jerph Overseas Placement and Trading Corp. (JOPTC), Powerhouse
Staffbuilders International, Inc. (PSII), Worldnet Business Mergers Corp.
(WBMC), Labor International Corp. (LIC), and East-West Placement Center,
Inc.(EWPCI) ? wanted to inquire about the deployment for firms under the
Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (KFSMB), a participant in
the AITS. The six agencies were among the eight firms listed in the POEA
website that are authorized to recruit Filipino workers for jobs in South
Korea.  The two others are A.S.H. Manpower International Services and VJ
International Services and Trading Co.

Manny Geslani, media consultant of the six agencies, told GMANews.TV that
these placement firms have sent 120,000 Filipinos on trainee visas to
South Korea over the last 15 years. Geslani said the six agencies have
been deploying workers with visas acquired through the KFSMB companies. He
said it would seem that the AITS has not been totally scrapped by the
Korean government in favor of the MOU signed by the Philippines with Korea
two years ago that introduced the EPS for foreigners entering Korea for
employment.

'The KFSMB is still in place and has even renewed the contracts of the six
Philippine agencies last September 2006 for another year, granting the
agencies new quotas for trainee workers who will be hired by companies and
factories affiliated with KFSMB," Geslani said. The KFSMB is being
supported by a majority in the National Assembly of Korea who wants to
retain the AITS in view of the numerous problems the EPS program has
encountered in its first two years, Geslani said. Among the problems with
EPS are unfair labor practices, lack of welfare and protection, payroll
deductions for food and lodging, and high rate of runaways from their EPS
employers.

Geslani said the six agencies will ask Baldoz for a grace period to
process their selected workers who are waiting for their trainee visas and
those in the pipeline who have trainee visas and ready to leave for their
jobsites in Korea . Earlier, Baldoz said Filipinos working as industrial
trainees must comeback to the Philippines upon expiration of their
contract and reapply under the EPS instead of going illegal. Employers
will face stiff penalty for employing illegal foreign workers in Korea,
Dr. Kim warned.

According to him, a huge number of overstaying workers will affect the
labor quota that will be given to the Philippines under the EPS. The POEA
said recruiters maybe held liable for violation of the 2002 POEA rules and
regulations governing the recruitment and placement of landbased overseas
workers and Republic Act 8042 or Migrant Workers & Overseas Filipino Act
of 1995. For her part, Baldoz said former trainees who are seeking legal
employment to Korea will have to register with the POEA and wait for at
least six months before they could go back to work in that country. "They
should pass the Korean Language Test (KLT) and the medical requirement for
inclusion in the 'Roster of Jobseekers' to have another chance to be hired
by Korean employer," Baldoz said. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV

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http://www.gmanews.tv/story/33553/Recruiters-seek-clarification-on-Korea-deployment-policy#

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