Hiring of alien workers to PHL learning opportunity for Pinoys

AN official of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) sees the employment of foreign workers in the country as an opportunity to learn from other nations.

“The other good thing of the mobility of our workers, or the coming in of foreign workers, is the knowledge exchange because, in a way, they also help us, we will be able to benchmark on the knowledge coming for other nations. We learn from other practices and culture, and to enhance our human capital, our skills, and our competency” DOLE-Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Dominique Tutay said in an interview.

Tutay added foreign workers are needed to further enhance the perspective of the country’s labor market.

“It is also part of our commitment on freer flow of goods and services, the entry of foreign nationals that’s in the form of services. It’s our free trade commitment. Second, we have reciprocity with other countries. Third, in a globalized economy, we are open to accepting foreign nationals, the mobility of our workers is a consequence of globalization,” she added.

The DOLE official added that the government must ensure that allowing foreign workers in the country must not sacrifice the Filipino workers, adding that there are regulations that they have to abide for their stay in the country is legal.

Over 86K POGO workers BASED on initial data as of June, Tutay said over 86,000 are employed in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

She noted that employment in POGOs is not limited to Chinese nationals.

Out of a total of 86,536 people employed in POGOs, 17 percent, which is equivalent to 15,500, are Filipinos while the remaining 83 percent or about 71,532 are people of various nationalities.

Chinese nationals comprise around 88 percent of foreign workers in POGOs, which is equivalent to 62,907 while the remaining 12 percent are other nationalities, such as Malaysian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Indonesians and Thais.

She said the sectors where these foreign nationals are employed include administrative support and service activities.

“Aside from that, we have also in Information and Technology but that’s very minimal only 7.7 percent,” Tutay added.

Asked on what are the jobs not available for foreigners, the BLE official said: “Low skilled, low skilled workers, are not for foreign nationals.”

“The rule is a foreign worker will be hired only as skilled and professionals. There are also other categories if they would like to invest in retail business, but there is a capitalization requirement,” she added.

Earlier, a survey revealed that many Filipinos are worried about the surge in the number of Chinese workers in the country.