The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said it is targeting to secure better employment opportunities for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) during a fresh round of bilateral talks with Canada and China this week.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said he will fly to Canada on Monday to prepare for the signing of an accord that primarily aims to ensure that the labor rights of Filipino health-care workers, particularly nurses, are protected.
“This is currently not included in the terms and condition of their [Filipino health-care workers’] contract,” Bello told reporters in an ambush interview last Friday.
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Bernard P. Olalia said Manila is targeting to sign the bilateral labor agreement (BLA) with Yukon, Canada.
“A joint communiqué [will be signed] to show our intention to do a BLA,” Olalia told the BusinessMirror via SMS.
This will be the first BLA that the Philippines will forge with a Canadian territory.
The POEA’s web site showed the country currently has BLAs with the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Colombia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Unlike Canadian provinces, which are created and given sovereignty by the Canadian Constitution, Canadian territories rely on the Canadian federal government for its operations.
More jobs
Once signed, Bello said the new BLA may also eventually lead to the hiring of more Filipino medical workers.
Based on the POEA’s deployment data from 2015 to 2017, only a few Filipino health-care professionals are employed in Canada.
In 2015, only 10 newly hired Filipino health-care workers were deployed to Canada. The figure dropped to eight in 2016.
There were no new hires deployed to Canada in 2017.
Expanded coverage
Following his trip to Canada, Bello said he will proceed to China to negotiate for another BLA with his Chinese counterpart.
Aside from teachers, he said they will discuss how Beijing and Manila can expand the deployment of OFWs to China.
“We will talk about the possible deployment of additional overseas Filipino workers [to China] like skilled workers and even household service workers,” Bello said.
The labor chief said, however, that the talks will not touch on the state of Chinese nationals, who are working in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo).
“They did not make any request [for an update] on that,” Bello said.
However, he said the DOLE is ready to ensure the rights of Chinese workers employed in Pogo sector are protected.