DOLE says Saudi gov’t to pay P4.6B in unpaid OFW salaries by December

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is expected to pay P4.6 billion in unpaid salaries to some 9,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) forced to return home after they stopped receiving remuneration, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Sunday.

According to the labor department, the payment is expected in December, when KSA Labor Minister Ahmed al-Rajhi is scheduled to visit the country.

“[T]he unpaid salaries of our OFWs can be settled just in time for Christmas,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in an emailed statement.

The statement was released after Bello attended the Abu Dhabi Dialogue in KSA last week to discuss cooperation between Asian countries and labor destinations.

The talks also covered the possible lifting of the suspension on Arab mega recruitment agencies said to be responsible for the deployment of the OFWs with unpaid salaries and benefits.

Bello earlier this month asked president Rodrigo Duterte to impose a deployment ban to Saudi Arabia should wages owed to OFWs remain unsettled.

Bello said he told the KSA official that the Philippines would lift the deployment ban in exchange for the payment of the unpaid salaries and benefits.

“[O]ur government is really thankful that the meeting with the KSA labor minister was fruitful,” said Bello. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News