The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) is pushing for a joint monitoring system for Filipino workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

In a statement by DMW Undersecretary for Policy International Cooperation Patricia Yvonne Caunan on 6 February, she said that Saudi officials had introduced their digital or application-based monitoring, but the Philippines is advocating for better coordination including a shared employer database.

“For example, if they have information about an employer, an employer who did something to our overseas Filipino worker (OFW), this can be shared with us immediately so that it can be immediately acted upon,” Caunan said.

She also stressed that the goal is to move away from a “complaint-driven” system and towards a preventive approach.

“We often experience delays, and we only hear about problems once a complaint has already been filed. We don’t want our monitoring to be complaint-driven,” she said.

DMW Secretary Hans Cacdac added that Saudi Arabia has already agreed to implement the monitoring system, which will adopt a “know your employer” approach. This will allow domestic workers to review their employer’s background before leaving the Philippines.

Proper categorization

The agency is also working on properly categorizing workers, particularly on the domestic helper and caregiver category.

Domestic workers handle general household service such cooking and cleaning and running errands whereas caregivers provide specialized care for individuals with medical needs requiring a different training.

Cacdac noted that many OFWs are deployed as domestic workers but end up caring for sick adults or children.

“We want to carefully and accurately categorize our workers so they are not generically classified as domestic workers. The Saudi side agrees with this and will implement it as well,” he said.

These changes will be included in a new Memorandum of Agreement with Saudi Arabia this year.

In other news, necessary paperworks for the Special Power of Attorney to pursue legal action against those involved with the death of OFW Jenny Alvarado who allegedly died due to coal suffocation, have already been processed.