The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today clarified that the United Kingdom (UK), a major host country of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), has not issued any new, "open hiring policy" for foreign domestic workers.

Labor and Employment Acting Secretary Manuel G. Imson issued the clarification after the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in London informed him that it had received numerous phone calls and inquiries about the (non-existent) "new rules."

"I have been apprised by our POLO in London that the UK's requirements, as set forth by that country's Immigration & Nationality Directorate Home Office for the issuance of visa to domestic workers (such as chauffers, cooks, gardeners, nannies, and others), have neither been revised nor changed," Imson said.

Philippine Labor Attache to London Jainal Rasul Jr. said that the clarification was deemed necessary even as the POLO had received numerous phone calls and queries on the impression that "there is now an open hiring policy in the UK." Rasul said that the Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Edgardo B. Espiritu, had requested for the clarification.

Rasul said that pursuant to the current UK rules, a would-be OFW interested in working in that country under the domestic worker category must abide with the following provisions:

a) He or she must be aged 18 to 65;

b) had been employed by his/her employer for one year or more prior to application for entry clearance;

c) intends to travel to the UK in the company of the employer or the latter's spouse or minor child;

d) intends to work full-time with the employer; and e) can maintain and accommodate himself/herself adequately, as certified by the employer, without recourse to public funds.

Imson indicated that the deployment of skilled OFWs to the UK, with strong emphasis on documented employment, had helped make the Philippine migration management system a global model.

He said that the UK, in a relatively short span of time, is now on record as the 10th top OFW destination globally after it hired/rehired another 11,078 OFWs, including medical, computer, nurses, and other personnel, in the first semester of 2005.

"The growth of employment of OFWs in the UK is remarkable because the OFWs there rose to 18,347 last year compared to only 198 in 1996, and they continue to fill the manpower needs of its burgeoning economy, one of the strongest in Europe and globally," the Acting Labor chief affirmed.

source: DOLE Information and Publication Service