By RODOLFO ESTIMO JR. | ARAB NEWS
Published: Jun 25, 2011 23:34 Updated: Jun 25, 2011 23:34
RIYADH: The Kingdom’s Nitaqat system to take effect on Sept. 10 has not only caused Filipino workers in the Kingdom to panic, it has also caused nongovernment organizations (NGOs) as well as labor recruiters in the Philippines to worry.
In a symposium held Thursday in Pasay City, Philippines, they unanimously called on President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino lll to address the impact of the system on the country’s overseas deployment program.
“The Philippine government must study and prepare for the implications of the Nitaqat system on more than a million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom. We would like to see a more proactive approach taken in explaining the Nitaqat to the workers and their families,” the Daily Inquirer quoted Susan Ople, president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, on its website. The center was the co-organizer of the symposium.
Participants unanimously concluded that the policy announced recently by the Kingdom would lead to massive losses of jobs among OFWs in Saudi Arabia.
John Leonard Monterona, Migrante Middle East regional coordinator, told Arab News earlier that he had received reports about OFWs terminated from their jobs.
Nitaqat aims to apply 205 categories of quotas that vary based on the line of work and size of the company. The Saudi Labor Ministry’s ideal setup for firms is to have more than 10 percent of their employees to be Saudi citizens, the Inquirer said.
Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel lll, a lawyer and also a convenor of the symposium, said that “Manila had no choice but to respect Riyadh’s new policy, which is meant to address the sharp rise in joblessness among Saudi youths.”
“They (the Saudis) are clearly looking out for the welfare and advancement of their own citizens. We ought to do the same by preparing a contingency plan for our own nationals that would be affected by Saudization,” said Pimentel, who is also the president of the PDP-Laban political party.
He added that he would bring the concerns of OFWs and recruitment sectors to his party mate, Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also the concurrent presidential adviser on OFW affairs.
LBS Recruitment Solutions Corp. president Lito Soriano, one of the convenors, said Nitaqat would affect Saudi-based OFWs who are rehires and who earn and remit more.
Citing government data, Soriano said that in 2009, there were 291,419 OFWs deployed in Saudi Arabia, of whom nearly 77 percent were rehires.
© Arab News 2011. All rights reserved.
