The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) based in Libya reported that the country started a new procedure in the deployment of all local and foreign medical workers. The new system aims to give priority to Libyan hospitals that are mostly in need of health practitioners.
To implement the system and to achieve its desired result, the Libyan government created a Central Committee that will be in-charge of the recruitment and employment of all medical and paramedical workers in this country.
The hiring of medical workers is previously under the responsibility of the shaa’biyyas or municipalities. The previous system practiced by the municipalities is decentralized so it results to uneven distribution of medical workers.
To implement the new system, Libya established a Central Committee. This is under the Libya's General People's Committee for Manpower, Training, and Employment. Some of the duties assigned to the Central Committee is to determine Libya's need for medical and paramedical workers, establish the recruitment mechanism in every shaa'biyya, study the allowance endowment of female nurses, and examine the law banning the employment of foreign workers.
This development affected the recruitment of 314 Filipino medical workers whose deployment to Libya encountered difficulties due to confusion and lack of coordination between the identified shaa'biyyas and the concerned government agency. A number of them already withdrew their application.
Still, Libya will continue to hire Filipino medical personnel although accompanied with some changes in their work assignments. There is the possibility of being assigned to Libyan hospitals in dire need of workers rather than to the previously identified municipalities. A total of 5,326 OFWs most of whom were medical workers were deployed to Libya last 2005.
For those who are interested, representatives from two Libyan hospitals, the Tripoli Medical Center and the Esbea Military Hospital would go to Manila to interview applicants and fill out 151 vacancies out of the approved 314 job orders.
