7 February 2015, Gulf Times

The Philippine government has received a positive response from Qatar’s Ministry of Labour to further enhance the protection of overseas Filipino workers’ welfare in the country, a senior official of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has said.

POEA Administrator Hans Cacdac told reporters that they proposed to have an agreement and implementing guidelines on the recruitment and protection of Filipino Household Service Workers (HSWs).

“The Qatari side is willing to sit down with us to discuss these matters on our next meeting,” he said.

Cacdac was speaking on the sidelines of his visit to the country for the second Qatar – Philippines Joint Labour Committee meeting held on February 4 and 5 in Doha.

He noted that some of the issues tackled during the discussion focused on transparency in the process of recruiting Filipino workers and ethical practices through regulation of recruitment costs and placement fees.

The two parties also discussed best possible ways to resolve disputes involving OFWs “with the clear participation of the embassy and the labour attaché.”

The Abu Dhabi dialogue, a multilateral forum, held in Kuwait last year was also brought up at the meeting, which Cacdac said, generated two major projects under the Philippine chairmanship: the skills recognition and certification, and information orientation programme for migrant workers.

In Qatar, the POEA official disclosed that they have engaged Qatari labour officials on how to develop the two activities on a bilateral level.

“We asked the Qataris if they would be interested and they said ‘yes’. We will embark in further technical discussions to develop this particular education information orientation programme,” said Cacdac.

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