Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW), who are involved in litigation to protect their rights and welfare, are expected to each receive a subsistence allowance of $100 a month for a maximum period of six months while pursuing their cases in the Saudi labor courts. The subsistence allowance is one of the benefits extended to OFWs under the newly approved rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10022, the amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995, which aims to protect the welfare of OFWs. The IRR is now in effect with several other provisions protecting OFWs, 15 days after its publication in two national newspapers in Manila on July 29, 2010. Many OFWs who are pursuing their cases in Saudi labor courts will be the direct beneficiaries of the subsistence allowance. It will be provided by the recruiting agencies that deployed them. Other provisions that benefit OFWs under the IRR include the repatriation of OFWs at the expense of their recruitment agencies in cases like illegal termination, prohibition of reprocessing or alteration on an OFW's contract (contract substitution), and mandatory insurance coverage. Under the IRR, foreign nationals engaged in recruitment activities in the Philippines are also barred from owning the majority shares of a recruitment agency. This prohibition, however, is often circumvented because most of the foreigners doing recruitment activities in the Philippines are married to Filipinas under whose names the agencies are registered. The mandatory insurance coverage for OFWs, extended at no cost to the workers, is effective only during the duration of workers' employment contracts. It will be provided by the recruiting agency that deployed the workers. The insurance policy provides that in case of accidental death, the worker's beneficiaries will received $15,000; $10,000 in case of natural death; and $7,500 in case of permanent disability. Detailed guidelines to implement the insurance coverage are now being worked out by the Philippine Insurance Commission in cooperation with concerned stakeholders, including recruitment agencies that will be issuing the insurance policies for the workers. A number of other provisions of the IRR are expected to be enforced soon, including the rules of deployment of OFWs to countries that have been certified by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. Countries which have no bilateral labor agreement with the Philippines protecting Filipino migrant workers will be removed from the list of possible destinations for OFWs. – SG The Department of Labor has listed at least 197 countries where OFWs are deployed, the biggest employer being Saudi Arabia which hosts some 1.5 million Filipino workers and their dependents.
