OFWs in Korea get 1-year extension

THE Department of Labor and Employment on Sunday announced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in South Korea who are under the employment permit system (EPS) and whose contract term expires this year have been given a oneyear extension.

Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd said Labor Attaché Maya Valderrama of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office informed him on the relevant amendment to the Act on Employment of Foreign Workers, which extends the stay of foreign workers in Korea because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Labor chief lauded the move of the government of South Korea.

“We welcome this unprecedented employment measure extended by the Republic of Korea (ROK) to our EPS workers especially during this time of the pandemic. The preservation of jobs of our OFWs everywhere in the world is our primordial concern and this development highlights the value of our 15 years of continuing bilateral cooperation on labor with the ROK,” Bello said in a statement.

Under the new directive, the employment period of foreign workers (E-9 and H-2) under the EPS and whose employment period (three years or four years and 10 months) expires from April 13, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2021 is extended for one year.

The policy also applies to EPS workers who have been given a 50-day visa extension by Korea authorities, provided that the extended period also falls within the period 13 April 2021 to 31 Dec. 2021.

The Philippines was the first country to sign the memorandum of understanding on EPS with South Korea in 2004.

The EPS is a government-to-government hiring system that allows Korean employers to legally employ foreign workers in cases of unavailability in the local workforce. It is managed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration with the Human Resource Development Service in Korea as its counterpart.