Jinggoy to dialogue with Australian ambassador on OFWs' plight

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada has bared plans to hold a dialogue with the Australian ambassador to the Philippines to inquire on the plight of Filipinos working in Australia, especially on the cases of two workers who died in that country this year amidst reports their employers breached their work visas.

"I will talk to Australian Ambassador Tony Hely to propose possible steps to further improve our countries' labor relations, and, to particularly follow up on the cases of Filipino workers Wilfredo Navales and Pedro Balading who died there," Estrada, who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor and Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment, said.

Navales, a stone mason, was crushed to death in a stoneworks firm north of Perth , Western Australia in March; while Balading, a farm supervisor, died after falling off a speeding truck on a cattle station at Darwin, Northern Territory in June. According to reports, the works they were performing were not the jobs they applied for but were just forced on them by their employers.

Navales and Balading were among some 100,000 migrant workers, including several Filipinos, hired thru Australia's "457 Visa Scheme," a temporary work visa that allows skilled foreign manpower into the country under a "guest worker" relationship to an Australian employer-sponsor for a minimum of three months to a maximum of four years.

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Estrada said, "I am alarmed over reports that the scheme puts migrant workers on a 'beholden status' to sponsors-employers, thus making the workers open to exploitation. Several employers have reportedly breached the scheme and swindled and forced workers to perform non-skilled jobs they did not apply for, under very poor and dangerous working conditions and even with diminished pay."

Estrada said included in his agenda for the dialogue with the ambassador would be:

- a proposal for Australia to beef up its monitoring of employers' compliance with the 457 Visa scheme and ensuring the scheme could not be abused by sponsors-employers to exploit workers;

- a request for a copy of Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DICE) report on untoward incidents involving Filipino employees hired thru the scheme;

- the possibility of the DICE preventing Australian recruitment and manning agencies from acting as sponsors to guest workers and then farming them out to employers, and its penalizing sponsors and/or employers breaching the 457 visas; and,

- establishing a Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) each in Sydney or Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, and in Perth or Darwin in the Northern Territory.

Estrada earlier recommended the posting of a Philippine labor attach?in each of the two territories to maximize job opportunities for Filipinos in that country and ensure protection to them.

There are more than 300,000 job vacancies in Australia that available to overseas workers, including Filipinos.