WHEN Labor Rosalinda Baldoz announced on January 12 that the government is “liberalizing the labor market and allowing entry of foreign workers with the required skills so we can fill up those hard to fill occupations due to shortage,” netizens expressed their anger in social media.
The need was based on a study conducted by the Dept. of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES), with the list of occupational shortage derived from “ a series of survey and consultations with concerned stakeholders,” as reported by Philstar.com.
Included in the list are architect, chemical engineer, chemist, environmental planner, fisheries technologist, geologist, guidance counselor, licensed librarian, medical technologist, sanitary engineer, computer numerical control machinist, assembly technician, test technician, pilot and aircraft mechanic.
“From a potential of 40 identified hard-to-fill occupations, the list has been trimmed down to 15 occupations with each occupation defined by a standard qualification,” she added.
According to Baldoz, an occupational shortage means that there is “a high demand for the position but there are very few applicants, or when there are few qualified applicants compared to the number of available jobs,” Philstar.com reported further.
“This is common in occupations which are numerically small within the total workforce, but the function is central to company operations such as pilot and geologist,” Baldoz said.
“Since there is a shortage, these occupations can be opened potentially to foreign skilled workers,” she added.
Perhaps what drew the ire of netizens and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in social media was when Baldoz indicated that “foreign experts who would apply for these listed occupations would be exempted from fee and other requirements, in line with the country’s labor market test,” as reported by Philstar.com.
However, Communications Sec. Sonny Coloma clarified that the proposal is just an “understudy” for now.
Coloma said that the proposal came from local industries and not from DOLE itself. He added that consultations between the DOLE and the industries continue.
Coloma also emphasized that the Aquino administration continues to prioritize job creation for Filipino citizens.
According to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, low salaries, lack of incentives for skilled workers and rising cost of living in the country are the main factors which force Filipinos to work abroad.
“With a measly P466 a day minimum wage in Metro Manila, the highest in the country, which is not even half of the government prescribed minimum of P1,200 a day for a family of six to survive, many Filipinos will still gamble their fate abroad leaving more vacancy here,” TUCP-Associated Labor Unions executive vice president Gerard Seno said.
“Other contributing factors that feed the trend are lack of access of unemployed to job opportunities, particularly newly graduates, an outdated training modules and standard offered by the academe, vocational schools and other training institutions, and oversubscription of a few courses. With these factors alive and present, we cannot totally close our doors to foreign skills,” Seno said.
It is understandable for OFWs to feel slighted by this new development. After all, apart from living in a distant land, away from their loved ones, they also have to deal with the requirements and bureaucracy that come with the process of working abroad.
But as Coloma said, the situation “ could also serve as a signal for our Filipino professionals abroad to return to the country to fill this gap and for schools to realign courses offered to match the demand for highly skilled workers.”
Perhaps it is high time that the Philippine government take job creation and this existing brain drain problem more seriously.
After all, finding remedies to these long-standing deficiencies would also help alleviate other existing OFW woes, such as illegal recruitment and human trafficking, which continually plague our hardworking kababayans abroad.
(AJPress)
