The Philippine government said on Wednesday that it is ready to deal with the challenges and impact of the new program of Saudi Arabia, known as "Nitaqat," to the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said that the new Saudization program should not be a cause of undue worry for the OFWs.
"Lately, some alarm bells are being rung about the new Saudization program known as 'Nitaqat' (zones or ranges in Arabic) , but I assure our workers and our people that this is no cause for undue worry," she said.
Baldoz said she met with H.E. Adel Fakeih, Minister of Labor of Saudi Arabia, at the sidelines of the recent 100th ILO Conference in Geneva, and he did not mention in their bilateral meeting anything about hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, including OFWs, getting displaced soon in the Saudi labor market.
Quoting her counterpart, she said, "Saudi labor market remains open for millions of foreign workers that also contribute side by side with national workers in achieving our various development goals, and fill the temporary needs of the national economy in its various stages of development."
Baldoz added that some licensed recruitment agencies have reported that many large companies employing Filipinos are already 80 percent compliant with the Saudization program.
Under the Nitaqat, the Saudi Ministry of Labor will classify 300,000 Saudi companies into four categories, namely, excellent and green (complying companies) and yellow and red (non-complying companies). Each company will be required to employ a minimum number of Saudi citizens based on company size and the occupations of the company's workers.
Saudi Arabia remains as the top destination of OFWs with almost 300,000 in 2009 and one of the biggest sources of OFW remittances.
Editor: Yang Lina
English.news.cn 2011-06-29 21:19:48 FeedbackPrintRSS
MANILA, June 29 (Xinhua)
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