The deployment of Filipino workers to Saudi Arabia will resume on Monday as the Department of Migrant Workers announced on Friday the lifting of the ban on accepting job offers from the kingdom.

The DMW announcement added that Philippine Overseas Labor Offices in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al-Khobar will start accepting job offers for OFW on Monday.

The year-long suspension of OFW deployment to Saudi Arabia were due to complaints of unpaid salaries and benefits as well as charges for Covid-19 testing and other health protocols. It ended following bilateral talks between the DMW and Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.

"We are not just reopening our deployment of workers to Saudi Arabia without a clear and strong foundation for the welfare and protection of our workers," DMW Secretary Susan Ople said.

"It is important because our Philippine Overseas Labor Office has been given a platform to monitor whether they have been paid on time, if the salary is rightly paid," DMW Undersecretary Patricia Caunan said.

Favorable contract

Under the agreement between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, Filipino workers will be issued with a "Saudi-specific employment contract" containing insurance benefits clauses for unpaid salaries, transportation costs and recruitment refunds to be shouldered by the Saudi government for skilled workers and by employers for household service workers.

A copy of the contract provided to the media by the DMW also showed clauses on healthcare, annual leave and sick leave of 30 days, as well as contract disputes between the worker and the employer.

Another clause says migrant workers can immediately terminate their contract when the employer fails to pay their salaries, and commit abuse and maltreatment.

Salaries will also be sent to migrant workers and their families electronically through a digital wallet.

Whitelist and Blacklist

Further, the two countries will have a joint database of compliant and non-compliant private and foreign recruitment agencies and employers, termed as "Whitelist" and "Blacklist" respectively, with the latter prohibited to participate in job offers and deployment of migrants.

To be put into the "Whitelist," employers and agencies must be compliant with Philippine rules and regulations, promote ethical recruitment and are willing to help migrants on labor issues, DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia said.

"We hope that abused and distressed OFWs that we hear on the news and social media would be a thing of the past," Olalia added.

The Saudi MHRSD is also mandated to help OFW in cases of human trafficking and exploitation from their employers, through direct report and referral by the DMW.

Ople said that further discussions will be held next week between the DMW and MHRSD on salary assessments, unpaid claims of construction workers and strengthening of anti-human trafficking initiatives.