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Foreign employers who thought it is easy to hire Filipino domestic helpers are in for a surprise as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) recently imposed more stringent rules on the hiring of low skilled workers.

The new rules specify that employment contracts of household service workers and other low skilled workers must be verified by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and the Philippine Embassy.

It also imposed additional requirements for employment processing including national certificate II from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and language orientation certificate from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

The POEA said the new circulars were issued to strengthen the protection mechanism for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). However, the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters vehemently opposed the new laws. The association said it would “strangulate” to death the Philippine recruitment industry.

Federation president Eduardo Mahiya, who expressed disappointment that the new regulations were imposed without conferring with the overseas employment sector, claimed that the new regulations are “unrealistic” and “detrimental” to the hiring of more OFWs.

“It is not the POEA rules that raise the hackles of the overseas employment sector but the manner by which the POEA issued the circulars,” Mahiya said. He added that the new regulations were issued last June 1 and did not allow much time for them to prepare for a transition.

Mahiya rhetorically asked what is the use of all the marketing missions which the President herself attends if after coming home, the direct providers of overseas employment opportunities are prevented from deploying more?