The Philippines to Sign New Bilateral Labor Deals with Germany and the United Kingdom

A Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) official stated that the Philippines will sign new bilateral deals with Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) to create more deployment opportunities for Filipino workers.

POEA Chief Bernard Olalia noted, “At the moment Secretary Bebot Bello is in another country. He is on his way to Germany to sign our Bilateral Labor Agreement (BLA).”

According to a statement from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), “ the agreement with Germany will include health workers and 31 other sectors.”

Among these sectors include hotel service, electrical engineering and mechanics, sanitation, heating, air conditioning, and child care.

Moreover, Olalia expressed in a public briefing that “Aside from Germany, the UK also needs numerous health workers.”

Countries such as Romania, Croatia, and Hungary are in demand of skilled Filipino workers.

On the other hand, Taiwan and South Korea have already started accepting factory workers while, New Zealand and Australia have also started to accept skilled workers

The Philippines has recently signed a labor agreement to deploy hotel workers to Israel.

Olalia mentioned, “If you could remember, these are the OFWs who were not able to be deployed in 2020 during the pandemic. We have coordinated with Israel and we are also the first ones to get an opportunity to deploy hotel workers.”

The Philippines were also able to deploy 2,000 caregivers to Israel. At the same time, 2,600 more have already signed their contracts and just waiting for their actual deployment dates.

Based on government data, there were some 2.2 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic lessened the figure to around 1.71 million in 2020.

According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), regardless of the economic slowdown that the pandemic caused, OFWs managed to send home around ₱134.7 billion from April to September 2020.