Employers not paying salaries to their workers and substituting workers' original employment contract with another contract providing lesser wages remain the top violations of the right of Filipino workers, according to a recently released report of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), Philippine Embassy in Riyadh. In the Eastern Province, POLO reported that in 2009 Filipino workers filed 927 cases of unpaid salaries against their employers, while the number of contract substitution cases recorded at the various labor courts in the region registered at 741. The POLO operation in Eastern Province also reported 445 maltreatment cases and 443 complaints of poor working and living conditions in 2009. Last year, 67 cases of sexual harassment and rape were also handled by the POLO in the region. On the brighter side of the report, the POLO office assigned to the region was able to collect monetary claims of Filipino workers against their employers amounting to SR1.19 million. The POLO office also assisted 42 workers involved in various crime-related activities. Labor attaché David Des T. Dicang, convening the Filipino community leaders last weekend, imparted guidelines on how to deal with problems associated with issues on wages and abuse and maltreatment. He said workers encountering or saddled with these problems should get in touch with the POLO regional representative or at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh for help and guidance. Philippine labor officials said similar problems of wage violations are prevalent in the Riyadh and Jeddah regions. The reported population of Filipinos in Eastern Province as of last year was 371,468. Over 124,000 of these are highly skilled workers employed in the construction-related jobs, over 76,000 other skilled workers assigned in the service industries, and about 80,000 laborers, including domestic helpers and family drivers.
