BAGUIO CITY – The local offices of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Bureau of Immigration (BID) were urged to conduct an investigation on the presence of foreign workers in some construction sites and business process outsourcing companies in the city in violation of existing labor and immigration laws.
Sources, who requested anonymity, disclosed that there are some 10 Vietnamese workers who have been working in one of the construction sites in the city even without the necessary alien employment permit issued to them by the labor department.
Further, he claimed that the Vietnamese workers are performing duties and responsibilities in the construction company which can be done by skilled Filipino workers thereby depriving local manpower of their chance to be employed and perform such jobs.
“We would like to bring this matter to the attention of concerned authorities so that they will compel the construction and BPO companies employing foreign workers to secure the required alien employment permit before performing whatever assigned duties and responsibilities in the said companies,” the source stressed.
He challenged the concerned government agencies to conduct the necessary surprise inspections on the operations of construction and BPO companies operating not only in the city but also in other parts of the region for them to be able to discover the presence of unpermitted foreign workers who are taking the place of Filipino laborers in doing specific duties and responsibilities.
Under existing labor laws, rules and regulations, companies employing foreign workers must declare with the labor department the number of foreign workers that have been employed and their specific duties and responsibilities aside from securing the mandated alien employment permit for their foreign workers.
Companies that will be found to have employed foreign workers without the required alien employment permit will be imposed a fine of P25,000 per employed foreign worker aside from the foreign workers being meted a fine of P25,000 for their alleged failure to secure such required permit from the labor department.
The source claimed that if the labor department was able to impose the required fines to the Chinese contractor in Tabuk City, Kalinga that employed Chinese nationals for the multi-billion Chico river Pump Irrigation Project, then it must also be aggressive in imposing the required fines to construction and BPO companies that continue to employ foreign workers without the necessary alien employment permit considering that such companies are just within the city.
The source underscored that concerned government agencies must sustain the conduct of required surprise inspections to the different companies that have been found to have been employing foreign workers to ensure that their foreign workers will be issued the appropriate permits for their safety and security.
He asserted that Filipino workers can easily do the job what is being assigned by the companies to the foreign workers that is why they are questioning the said companies in their decision to employ foreign workers over the existing Filipino workers present in the locality.
By HENT
