MIGRANT WORKERS AND OVERSEAS FILIPINOS ACT OF 1995

(RA 8042)

I. PURPOSE

To institute the policies of overseas employment and establish a higher standard of protection and promotion of the welfare of migrant workers, their families and overseas Filipinos in distress, and for other purposes

II. DEFINITION OF TERMS (Sec. 3)

MIGRANT WORKER – a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a renumerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a legal resident to be used interchangeably with overseas Filipino worker

OVERSEAS FILIPINOS – refers to dependents of migrant workers and other Filipino nationals abroad who are in distress

III. ILLEGAL RECRUITMENT (II)



A. Any act of canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring, or procuring workers and includes referring, contract services, promising or advertising for employment abroad, whether for profit or not, when undertaken by a non-license or non-holder of authority

SOME FORMS:

1. Leaving the country as a tourist but with the intention of working abroad;
2. Escort Services – tourist/workers “escorted” at the country’s airports and seaports;
3. By Correspondence – applicants are encouraged by the recruiter to comply with employment requirements and placements through mail;
4. Blind Ads – fraudulent and misleading advertisements promising facility of employment;
5. Au Pair – an inter-cultural program wherein a host family sponsors a person to study language and culture for a monthly allowance in exchange for a home to stay in;
6. Backdoor Exit – going out of the country through some airports and seaports in the southern part of the Philippines;
7. Camouflaged participation in foreign seminars and sports events;
8. Workers leave as participants in seminars or sports events but eventually finding jobs in the host country; and,
9. Traineeship Scheme – Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) students leaving in the guise of a traineeship program for hotels abroad but eventually landing jobs in the training establishment.

B. Include the following acts, whether committed by any persons, whether a non-licensee, non-holder, licensee or holder of authority

1. To charge or accept directly or indirectly any amount greater than the specified in the schedule of allowable fees prescribed by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, or to make a worker pay any amount greater than that actually received by him as a loan or advance;
2. To furnish or publish any false notice or information or document in relation to recruitment or employment;
3. To give any false notice, testimony, information or document or commit any act of misrepresentation for the purpose of securing a license or authority under the Labor Code;
4. To induce or attempt to induce a worker already employed to quit his employment in order to offer him another unless the transfer is designed to liberate a worker from oppressive terms and conditions of employment;
5. To influence or attempt to influence any persons or entity not to employ any worker who has not applied for employment through his agency;
6. To engage in the recruitment of placement of workers in jobs harmful to public health or morality or to dignity of the Republic of the Philippines;
7. To obstruct or attempt to obstruct inspection by the Secretary of Labor and Employment or by his duly authorized representative;
8. To fail to submit reports on the status of employment, placement vacancies, remittances of foreign exchange earnings, separations from jobs, departures and such other matters or information as may be required by the Secretary of Labor and Employment;
9. To substitute or alter to the prejudice of the worker, employment contracts approved and verified by the Department of Labor and Employment from the time of actual signing thereof by the parties up to and including the period of the expiration of the same without the approval of the Department of Labor and Employment;
10. For an officer or agent of a recruitment or placement agency to become an officer or member of the Board of any corporation engaged in travel agency or to be engaged directly on indirectly in the management of a travel agency;
11. To withhold or deny travel documents from applicant workers before departure for monetary or financial considerations other than those authorized under the Labor Code and its implementing rules and regulations;
12. Failure to actually deploy without valid reasons as determined by the Department of Labor and Employment; and
13. Failure to reimburse expenses incurred by the workers in connection with his documentation and processing for purposes of deployment, in cases where the deployment does not actually take place without the worker's fault. Illegal recruitment when committed by a syndicate or in large scale shall be considered as offense involving economic sabotage.

IV. ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

Illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate or in large scale

A. SYNDICATE - carried out by a group of three (3) or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another

B. LARGE SCALE - committed against three (3) or more persons individually or as a group