THE Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) yesterday said it will continue to pursue some P4.6 billion in salary claims of about 9,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were repatriated from Saudi Arabia between January 2016 and December 2019.
“We are giving assurance that the department will not give up on this (unpaid claims),” DMW Secretary Susan Ople said in an interview.
She said the matter will be discussed when Philippine officials meet with a delegation of the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) this week.
She said the claims are still in various stages of processing.
“Some claims are in the implementation court, some are in the process process of liquidation by the company,” she said.
The continued failure of Saudi Arabia to settle the financial claims is one of the reasons then Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III imposed a temporary suspension of deployment to Saudi Arabia in November of last year.
The DMW has reopened the Saudi Arabia market after holding a series of talks with its counterparts.
The Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) in Saudi Arabia began verification of new job contracts for Saudi-bound OFWs last Monday.
Meanwhile, Ople said the 24 years minimum age of household service workers (HSWs) was set by law and not the DMW.
