Hail expats’ complaints will be probed, assures Filipino official

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in the Saudi capital city said it is finding ways to render assistance to the two Filipinos in alleged cases of maltreatment and contract violations at the hands of their employers in Hail.
“The officer assigned to the case has been in touch with the two Filipinos and has told them that the POLO will write to the labor office in Hail and ask officials to investigate the complaint,” a POLO official said.
The official expressed reservation in filing complaints now because the two persons need to be present at the labor office in person in order to begin the case. “They can’t be there because they’re working as housemaids to different families,” the official said.
He added that the case is rather difficult to solve because the two persons came to the Kingdom as skilled workers.
“There is no counterpart agency in the Kingdom for skilled workers. We could have approached the agency and asked it to call the employer about the case,” the official said.
He added that if they came here as household service workers (HSWs), such as housemaid, their case would have been easier to resolve.
“There’s a counterpart agency in the Kingdom for HSWs which we could ask to contact the employer for exit visas,” the official said.
The case officer of the case said that had recently talked to one of the complainants who also called Arab News saying that she had been working for 17 hours even if she was sick.
The two complainants were deployed by Mayon International Trading Corporation, a recruitment agency in Manila, on April 16, 2014 as dressmakers, but were made to work as housemaids instead. The POLO said the agency has since closed down.
As housemaids they are not even receiving the SR1,500 monthly salary stipulated in the labor agreement signed by the Philippines and the Kingdom in 2013.
“Sometimes we receive SR1,200, at other times SR1,300 for our services in working for different households for 15 days in a row,” they said.