THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is now eyeing to forge a new labor bilateral agreement with Tel Aviv to give overseas Filipinos workers (OFW) there the same kind of welfare protection enjoyed by their compatriots in Kuwait.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III is currently in Israel to negotiate with his Israeli counterparts for the said accord as part of the preparation for President Duterte’s visit from September 2 to 5.
“We went ahead to close the bilateral agreement so that when the President arrives he would just sign it,” Bello told reporters at a news briefing last week.
“We might adopt the template of the MOU (memorandum of understanding) we used for Kuwait, although not all,” he added.
The Philippines-Kuwait MOU for Filipino household service workers (HSW) is considered a landmark agreement due to is new protective provisions.
These include allowing Filipino HSWs to keep their mobile phones and other communication devices along with their passports and other personal identity documents.
Bello admitted that some of these MOU measures may not be necessary since OFWs in Israel, including HSWs, are generally treated well.
“In fact, our household service workers are treated as caregivers. They are not required to be at the home of their employers every day,” Bello said.
The Israel Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ICCP) has been pushing for the passage of the labor pact since 2016 to allow the country to send more Filipino caregivers to Israel.
It was hoping the new accord would address this by reducing the recruitment fees for OFWs bound for Israel.
Latest government data showed there are over 34,000 OFWs in Israel.