DMW releasing protocols on Korea Seasonal Workers Program
MANILA, Philippines — Department of Migrant Workers Officer-in-Charge Hans Cacdac on Monday said the DMW will issue a new set of guidelines on the Seasonal Workers Program (SWP) to “standardize the protection” of seasonal overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed in South Korea.
“Ang gusto nating mangyari, i-standardize ang protection. Para hindi […] spotty or uneven ang pagbigay ng tulong, one LGU [local government unit] will provide this and the other will provide something more,” Cacdac explained.
(What we want to happen is to standardize protection mechanisms. So it won’t be sporadic or uneven in providing assistance, where one LGU provides this and another provides something else.)
The SWP was facilitated by partner LGUs in the Philippines and Korea to address Seoul’s lack of workers during peak farming seasons
The DMW, however, issued a moratorium on deploying workers for the program in light of “illegal recruitment, labor, and welfare cases,” a January 11 advisory from the DMW said.
Cacdac said in a media briefing that it has received around 150 complaints from OFWs who are part of the program, five of which were cases of physical abuse.
He added that the LGUs have been helping out the workers they have deployed to Korea but stressed the importance of the national government’s involvement in the SWP.
“Hopefully, there will be prevention of stressful situations or unfortunate circumstances, or cases of abuse […] and number two, if this unfortunately happens, we will have adequate protocols and timely interventions that will occur both between the national side and the LGU side,” the DMW OIC said in Filipino, referring to the issues that the forthcoming guidelines were set to address.
Cacdac said that the moratorium on the SWP will be lifted once the necessary guidelines for the program are in place.
He added that they are also expecting a separate inter-agency guideline on the program next week, on top of DMW’s new set of guidelines.
“We’re expecting, hopefully, two issuances next week,” Cacdac noted.
