Korea wants Pinoy service workers, says POEA exec

MANILA, Philippines — South Korea is expanding its labor market to Filipinos to include not just factory but service workers as well, an official of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said on Thursday. Deputy Administrator Carmelita Dimzon said arrangements are being made between the agency and the South Korean government for the possible deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Incheon Metropolitan City. “They are opening the Incheon Metropolitan City for Filipino workers," said Dimzon, who explained that Korea’s banks and hotels are in need of English-speaking staff. Asked how many services and IT workers are needed, Dimzon said they have to figures yet. But once they finalized the agreement, “we will know their requirement." Dimzon also said information technology (IT) personnel are required by South Korea. Dimzon said the 10,000 quota allotted by Korea for the Philippines under the Employment Permit System (EPS) remains in effect. Deployment of OFWs under the EPS system was suspended last year due to reports of irregularities. “We will resume the deployment once we complete the signing (with our counterparts within this year)," Dimzon said. In 2004, the Philippines and Korea entered into a government-to-government recruitment of workers through the EPS to correct the exorbitant mobilization costs being charged by private recruitment companies and their partner brokers in Korea. As of May 2008, a total of 20,476 Filipino workers were deployed and currently working in Korea. Korea currently implements the EPS with the participation of 9 other sending countries which include Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Under the EPS system, Korean employers could only get foreign workforce legally. The POEA is the only government organization authorized to implement the EPS in the country. - GMANews.TV