South Korea is a viable destination for many Filipino workers who want to work overseas as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced that companies in the said country are set to hire 5,000 Filipinos in the next 10 months.

This is possible because the memorandum of understanding between the Philippines and South Korea to adopt an Employment Permit System (EPS) was recently renewed.

Under the EPS, recruitment of Filipino workers to Korea is done on a government to government basis. This means that all applications can only be processed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). This system that started in 2004 prevents the charging of excessive mobilization and placement fees by recruitment companies and their brokers in South Korea.

The said MOU was signed last May 30 by the Secretary of DOLE, Marianito D. Roque and Korean Labor Minister Lee Younghee. This happened before the official visit of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to Seoul.

Aside from the Philippines, South Korea also has EPS agreements with other countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan.

Nevertheless, there are some sectors which are not happy with the EPS system and openly expressed their criticism. According to a migrant group, Migrante International, EPS is a disadvantageous arrangement for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as evident by many cases of unfair labor practices, lack of welfare protection, payroll deductions for food and lodging, and high rate of runaways from employers.

On the side of recruitment agencies, Emmanuel Geslani, a recruitment consultant said that the EPS protects Korean employers and violate the rights of OFWs and

Geslani cited that with the estimated 17,000 OFWs that were deployed to Korea via EPS, almost 5,000 workers returned to the Philippines with unfinished work contracts. He also informed that in 2007, reports of runaways and complaints filed with the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) caused the deployment to Korea to decrease by 40 percent.

As POEA is the only agency in the Philippines that is authorized to handle recruitment of workers to Korea, the sending of trainee workers to Korea by the private sector becomes illegal.

Geslani further informed that even if the EPS makes the fees for the Korean Language Test cheaper (from USD30 or Php1,400 to USD17 or Php P800), the amount saved will be useless because under EPS the food and accommodation is charged to the workers.

To settle this dispute, POEA Chief, Jennifer Manalili said the government was “renegotiating" some provisions in the EPS agreement. Among the minimum standards set by the Philippines in the new EPS is the provision for free accommodation.
Aside from the EPS, another labor agreement between the Philippines and South Korea was signed last May 30. It is a memorandum of understanding on Labor and Manpower Development. The new MOU provide among other things training of OFWs on-site to prepare them for their eventual return to the Philippines.