MANILA, Philippines — A group of migrants right advocates on Wednesday said many Filipino workers in Taiwan are receiving far smaller amounts than the legislated minimum wage of NT$17,280 (P24,147), thanks to labor flexibility measures allegedly hatched by the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco).
The Hongkong based Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) said Meco should be investigated for announcing that it has convinced Taiwanese employers to adopt labor flexibility measures on OFWs instead of retrenching them to address the global financial crisis.
This was in line with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Administrative Order 257, which seeks to cushion the impact of the global recession on Filipino overseas workers.
MECO, the de factor Philippine Embassy in Taiwan, is directly under the Office of the President.
Gi Estrada, APMM coordinator, said labor flexibility measures such as “no work, no pay" and forced unpaid leave schemes has further reduced some OFWs pay.
“To many others, they would not be paid overtime pay if they worked more than 8 hours in a day or during holidays and days off as this is deemed by employers as payment for the days OFWs had no work," Estrada said in a statement.
APMM said Meco and the POEA had “previously agreed to exploitation OFWs in Taiwan by tolerating the practice of inserting an addendum to the original contracts of Filipino migrants signed in the Philippines indicating that they would pay for their airfare to and from Taiwan and for payment of up to NT$5,000 a month for board and lodging fees."
“In addition to this both government entities had agreed not to include OFWs from Taiwan to the Balik Manggagawa program of the POEA and to the broker system in said island.
“The first ensured that OFWs needed to pay the same amount of placement fees every two or three years even if they were rehires. And the second necessitated the payment of monthly brokers’ fees to the tune of NT$1,666 for a three year period. These and other exploitative deductions reduced the minimum wage of OFWs to only NT$9201 (P12,858) a month," APPM said. - D'Jay Lazaro,