Philippines, Saudi Arabia to discuss mechanics in settling OFWs’ P4.6B unpaid salaries — OWWA

The Philippines and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will iron out the mechanics how the P4.6 billion worth of unpaid salaries will be paid to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were forced to return home after they stopped receiving remuneration from their employers, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said Tuesday.

At the Laging Handa briefing, OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced over the weekend that Saudi Arabia is expected to pay the unpaid salaries and benefits of around 9,000 OFWs.

The amount is expected to be paid in December, when Saudi Arabian Labor Minister Ahmed Al-Rajhi visits the Philippines.

“Mechanics ng distribution pag-uusapan pa,” Cacdac said.

[The mechanics of distribution will be discussed.]

“Magkakaroon pa ng pagpupulong sa pagitan ng Saudi at Philippine governments para lalo pang magkaroon ng linaw itong implementasyon ng napag usapan at magkaroon na ng pagtatapos itong matagal nang paghihintay ng ating mga mahal na OFW,” he added.

[The Saudi and Philippine governments will conduct meetings to iron out the details on how to implement this and to finally conclude the long-wait of our beloved OFWs.]

In 2016, the Philippine government repatriated the OFWs after they stopped receiving their salaries following the economic crisis in the Middle Eastern country brought by the plunge in oil prices in the world market.

The OFWs, through the help of state lawyers, won the case over their unsettled pay in Saudi Arabia but until now they still have not received their back wages.

In a statement over the weekend, the Department of Labor and Employment said Bello was invited by Al-Rajhi for a private meeting where the Saudi labor executive appealed for the lifting of the suspension on Arab mega recruitment agencies which were responsible for the deployment of OFWs whose salaries and benefits remained unpaid.

Bello, according to the DOLE, assured Al Rahji the Philippines would lift the deployment ban in exchange for the payment of salaries of the OFWs.

The Labor chief said the meeting with his Saudi Arabian counterpart was “fruitful.”

On the earlier plan to study the imposition of a deployment ban to Saudi Arabia if the wages owed to OFWs remain unsettled, Cacdac said the OWWA and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) are waiting how the Middle Eastern country will fulfill its commitment.

To recall, Bell instructed the OWWA and POEA to study the imposition of deployment ban to Saudi Arabia.

In May this year, the Labor Department temporarily suspended the deployment of OFWs to the oil-rich kingdom amid reports that OFWs were being required by their employers/foreign recruitment agencies to shoulder the costs of the health and safety protocol for COVID-19 and insurance coverage premium upon their entry in Saudi Arabia.

The deployment ban was immediately lifted after Bello received official communication from the Saudi government that foreign employers and agencies would shoulder the costs of institutional quarantine and other COVID-19 protocols upon arrival. — RSJ, GMA News