Foreign employers found terminating overseas Filipino workers' contracts in Hong Kong due to coronavirus infection should be blacklisted, a senatorial reelectionist said.
Senator Risa Hontiveros called on the Duterte administration on Tuesday, Feb. 22, to not allow employers, who abandoned their Filipino helpers after contracting coronavirus disease (COVID-19), to hire from the Philippines again.
This after overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong were confirmed to be terminated from their jobs after contracting the disease, causing them to be denied for hospital admission.
"Nananawagan ako sa administrasyon na ilagay sa blacklist ang mga employer na mapapatunayang inabandona ang mga Pilipinong kasambahay na nagka-COVID. Maaari ring magsampa ng mga kaso laban sa mga employer na yan (I am calling on the administration to put on a blacklist the employers found abandoning Filipino helpers infected with COVID. Cases can be filed against these employers)," she said.
"We cannot allow them to hire again," she stressed.
Hontiveros also hopes that the affected OFWs will be promptly rescued and given medical assistance.
Senatorial candidate Sonny Matula, a labor lawyer, also called for the immediate response of the government on the issue as he slammed the "inhumane treatment" of OFWs.
Matula told the government "we should show genuine care and love to our OFWs."
"Philippine authorities must acknowledge the serious problem and step in. Government should save the lives of our OFWs in distress, after all, it keeps on harping that OFWs have saved the economy," Matula said.
The labor lawyer further said that it's a good thing Filipino migrant groups and trade unions in Hong Kong are taking the cudgels for the dismissed and abandoned OFWs by taking them in, and providing them food, shelter and health care.
"But it's government's primary job to do this. It's a pity. Domestic workers are the frontline caregivers of those with COVID at their employers' homes. Now that they have contracted the virus, they are being kicked out and being left for dead," he said.
Hontiveros and Matula are both seeking a seat in the Senate under presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo's senatorial ticket.