Following its successful bilateral talks in Canada, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said another Canadian province is now interested in opening its doors to more overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
During his talk with his Canadian counterpart, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said he was informed that British Columbia now also wants to sign a new bilateral labor agreement with the country to hire skilled Filipino workers.
Upon signing, it will be the second labor accord of British Columbia with the country since it forged a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine government in 2008 for cooperation on Human Resources Development and Deployment.
Bello said the proposed bilateral labor agreement of British Columbia will be similar to what they are currently forging with the Canadian territory of Yukon.
Last month, Bello headed to Yukon to sign a joint communique to formally start the bilateral talks for a government-to-government deployment arrangement.
He said OFWs, particularly in the medical field and technical occupations like machine operators and engineers, are in demand in the Canadian mining territory.
“They will designate their technical working group and we will have our technical working group, and they will conduct the discussion on the preparation of a bilateral agreement which will also provide a contract template of employment,” Bello told reporters in an interview.
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration Administrator Bernard P. Olalia, in a text message, confirmed they are targeting the completion of the bilateral agreement with Yukon by November as Bello instructed.
Bello said they are now eyeing Canada as a prime destination for OFWs since most of its areas remain underpopulated and its migrant workers are treated well.
“It seems that the condition of our workers there are well protected. Not a single Filipino worker or OFW gave a negative comment of their stay there. They all appear to be very prosperous,” Bello said.