The main reason for Filipinos coming home prematurely is contractual violations such as excessive fee collection, underpayment of wages, misrepresentation and contract substitution, disputing the view that plummeting oil prices have forced overseas Filipino workers to return to the Philippines.
Citing records kept by Assist WELL (Welfare, Employment, Livelihood and Legal), which processes the reintegration of a returning OFW back to the Philippines, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said they thought initially that oil price plunge is the main reason Filipinos were forced to go back home from work abroad.
It has been widely speculated that the development in oil price in the Middle East would result in massive layoff of Filipino workers as part of cost-cutting measures anticipated from countries highly dependent on oil revenues.
Baldoz said, based on recent data, the reasons cited by the OFWs for coming home to the Philippines were termination (21), end of contract (16), the oil price crisis (8) civil unrest (5), and health issues (4). Regarding the cases of OFWs who fell victims of alleged violations, the Labor Secretary has instructed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration call the attention of the recruitment agencies responsible for deploying the said workers.
The Philippine government has earlier dismissed reports of widespread retrenchments among Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia. Such reports cauded apprehension among families of Filipino migrant workers, many of whom are sole breadwinners for the family.
Baldoz also disagreed to a statement issued by Migrante Partylist that said at least two major companies in Saudi Arabia employing Filipino workers have been laying off its workers as an impact to falling oil prices.
“One such statement — that of Migrante, with which we strongly disagree — was not based on hard facts. It exaggerates the situation and unnecessarily fuels the anxiety among the public. This kind of statement does not help at all,” according to Baldoz.