OVER a month after its release, the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the mandatory Social Security System (SSS) membership of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) has yet to be finalized, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
POEA administrator Bernard P. Olalia said representatives of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and Social Security System (SSS) were still settling the issue during their meeting last month.
The three agencies are still discussing how to implement the controversial provision of Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) of the Social Security Act (SSA) of 2018, amid questions by stakeholders on its legality.
Under the IRR, aspiring overseas Filipino workers would have to pay for their SSS premium before they could get their OEC, a document issued by POEA to allow them to work abroad. Migrant worker solidarity groups said it made no sense, and is unfair, to compel outbound first-timer OFWs to pay for their SSS premiums when they have not even begun working.
The said IRR provision has now already been deferred for over a month.
“For now, collection of SSS contribution is still not tied up with the issuance of OEC,” Olalia said.
The POEA chief said among the issues tackled in the July interagency meeting was the question of which agency will be responsible for collecting the premiums, as well as the proposal of Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III to make OFWs pay their SSS premium only three months after their arrival in their destination country.
“There was still no decision on the said matter,” Olalia told reporters in an ambush interview last week.
He said the decision may be in the form of a resolution or an amendment of the IRR, which was issued in June.
Olalia told the BusinessMirror they are currently waiting for the next interagency meeting to finalize the implementation of the mandatory SSS membership of OFWs stipulated by the SSA.
“SSS is the one scheduling the meeting,” Olalia said.