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Suffering OFWs in Riyadh get help

BAGUIO CITY (Feb. 18) — After almost two months of suffering and fighting for their rights, some 38 overseas Filipino workers (OFW), who are held by their employer for protesting unfair labor practice in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were finally given attention. Their employer, the Annasban Contracting Group is holding them and is demanding each OFW to pay 5,000 Rials for breach of contract.

According to Migrante –Riyadh the Placewell, GBMLT, YHMD and Rubies recruitment agencies that deployed the said OFWs finally agreed to pay for their repatriation and reimburse Annasban’s expenses. The group also said that Annasban’s operations were already suspended here in the Philippines since Noember 25, 2005 upon the joint recommendation of POLO Riyadh and Jeddah.

Migrante-Cordillera’s Flora Belinan welcomed the actions of OWWA and POEA. However, she said that concerned government agencies should conduct investigations on the resumption of the operation of Annasban despite earlier suspension. Involved officials should also be punished for putting the lives of the said OFWs in danger. She added that had the placement agencies should acted earlier the OFWs should have not suffered this long.

“This is a victory to the OFWs. It only shows that without the unity of OFWs and dependents the government would not listen to their pleas,” Belinan stressed.

According to 0verseas Workers’ Welfare Administration Officer Mamerto Mercado three of the said 38 OFW recruited by GBMLT are expected to be home on February 25. Placewell is also processing the tickets of the OFWs they recruited.

Migrante Baguio-Benguet also said that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) recently suspended the Placewell Manpower Services.

The said OFWs have earlier appealed to government authorities for their immediate repatriation. Fifteen to 18 of the protesters are from Baguio City and Benguet.

In a January 24 letter they sent to public officials including Benguet Governor Borromeo Melchor, Benguet Congressman Samuel Dangwa and Baguio Congressman Mauricio Domogan, the OFWs said they do not like to stay longer in that country and appealed for continuous effort to have them repatriated. Specifically, the OFWs sought financial assistance for repatriation to proceed.

Lydia Balaoen, a mother of one of the protesting OFWs, said in a press conference at the Mandarin Restaurant here, that the OFWs must be repatriated immediately to stop their suffering. She added that they are deprived of food and clean water. “It is getting hot in Saudi that is why they need to be removed from the villa rooftop,” Balaoen pleaded in Filipino.

Belinan said that Annasban Contracting Group, the employer, blocks any food supply and other support sent to the protesters by other OFWs in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier, some of the OFWs wrote to public officials on the bad working conditions at Annasban. As early as November 2005, they have been calling the attention of the Philippine government, who sent them abroad via the Public Employment Services Office (PESO) in Baguio City and La Trinidad,

Work stoppage

The Cordillera block stopped working to dramatize their plight in the hands of Annasban. The OFWs said they fear being treated more grossly after the company heard of their complaints.

A day after the work stoppage, their employer called six of them to a meeting where he explained that the contract they signed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport had been replaced with another contract in Arabic, which they signed when they landed in Riyadh.

Their employer admitted that the contract signed in the Philippines was different from the Arabic contract. “Very much obvious that we had been cheated since they forced us to sign without explaining its content,” their letter read.

The OFWs stopped working since January 22 as patient attendants and caregivers at the Markas Estimaeh Rehabilitation Center (center), home for the physically and mentally retarded persons in Saudi, after they found out that their salaries were not even enough to buy food. One of the agreements was for the Annasban to provide them food or its compensatory equivalent in cash, but it turned out that the OFWs are buying their own food.

As soon as the OFWs started the organized work stoppage, Annasban sent them to the rooftop of the villa where they stayed since May 2005.

Low pay, hard work

Besides, each of the caregivers was promised only Saudi Riyal 665 monthly, which was always delayed. For instance, parents wrote that their October-December 2005 salaries were released only on January 2005. After deductions have been made, they still had to buy food, cooking gas and safe drinking water that only SR10 is left from their pay envelopes monthly to send to their respective families.

They worked continuously for 12 hours a day without overtime pay as promised. On Fridays, it is even worse because they stay at the jobsite 24 hours. Three buses ferried OFWs to and from the workplace but half of them stand through out the 30-minute bus trip. According to records, there are 348 OFWs per shift.

One caregiver looked after 4-6 wards that needed fulltime attention. “Pag nauntog, nahulog o may nangyari na di sinasadya, cut na iyon sa salary namin,” (When one falls, bang his/her head or something happens, there is a salary cut against us) one of their letters stated.

Contract violations

According to a letter addressed to different government offices the work stoppage was due to the failure of Annasban to fulfill what is stated in the contract. Among those in the agreement are free food or compensatory allowances, which was not given; the 8-hour work-day which turned out to be 12-hour, without the 150% - 200% overtime pay as promised; delayed payment in salaries; medical and dental services which were actually deducted from their salaries, among others.

They were prevented from using cell phones or telephone from day one of their stay in the jobsite and the villa. There were occasional bodily searches done by male personnel who inflict sexual harassment and maltreatment during the search.

Worse, the contract they signed just before departure from the Philippines was changed when they touched ground in Riyadh. The Riyadh contract was in Arabic that none of them knew what it stipulated. Some of them thought that it was just an acknowledgement receipt of travel money.

Stow away

Elisa, not her real name, escaped from the job site with two others after working there for five months. They sought the help of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and stayed there for three months without work until her repatriation on January 11, “We had to abandon the jobsite and sought refuge at the Bahay Kalinga because we were at a very difficult situation,” Elisa narrated. She recalled that a van used to fetch them from the Villa, a free accommodation for caregivers at the rehabilitation center, to the jobsite and vice versa. “It was not for our safety but to assure the employer that no one escaped, she said.

The OFWs went there as janitress, but ended up as caregivers. In Elsa’s case, she was promised a certificate in care giving that she consented.

“We were caregivers but our pay was for janitorial work,” Elisa told Nordis.

There are more than 1,000 workers in the villa. Most of them are Filipinos, but there are Indonesians, Sri Lankans, Indians and Bengalis in the same jobsite, according to Elisa. # Lyn Ramo with reports from Kim Quitasol for NORDIS

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