South Korea and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are one of the favorite destinations of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Today, the two countries have good news for OFWS who wants to work there.

One of them is the 20 percent increase to the allotted quota of Filipino workers that can be employed in South Korea. Two-thousand workers are added to the 2006 quota of 10,000. The good performance of OFWs the previous year is said to be the reason for the quota increase. This is according to Rosalinda Baldoz, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator.

The Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS) covers 14 countries and because of this new development, the Philippines now hold the biggest allotment for foreign workers in Korea. Baldoz said Thailand and Vietnam got 11,000 quota each, Indonesia and Mongolia got 9,000 each, and Sri Lanka, was given 8,000. Other countries have quota ranging from 1,000 t0 5,000 workers.
   

According to Baldoz, “The increased quota for the Philippines underscores the confidence of Korea in the soundness of our labor migration policies and the competence of the government overseas employment agencies to deliver the required services."

On the other hand, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was recently signed between the labor officials of UAE and the Philippines. The MOU aims to protect the rights of OFWs as it prohibits “contract substitution” that encourages ill-treatment of workers

Consul-General of the Philippine Embassy in UAE, Maria Teresa Taguiang, said, “The MOU prescribes UAE employers to draw up the individual labor contracts, Filipino workers sign them, and UAE authorities verify the agreements and put them in the Ministry’s database.
The process would eliminate contract substitution, which happens when employers force Filipino workers to sign another contract upon arriving in the UAE.”