Austria opens thousands of jobs for skilled Filipino workers, DMW says
Around 500 Filipino workers will be deployed every year to Austria to meet the European country’s demand for more workers across all industries that include healthcare, engineering and tourism, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) announced on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
The deployment of Filipino workers is the content of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by DMW Officer-in-Charge Hans Leo J. Cacdac, and State Secretary Susanne Kraus-Winkler of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Labor and Economy (BMAW).
Under the agreement around 500 Filipino workers will be deployed annually to meet the Austria’s demand of around 75,000 to 200,000 job openings across all industries, including sectors of healthcare, construction and engineering, information technology, and tourism and hospitality.
“Through this agreement, we aim to facilitate the deployment of Filipino professionals and skilled workers to Austria in a manner that is safe, ethical, sustainable, and mutually beneficial. Our workers, in return, will contribute to addressing labor shortage in Austria and to sharing their expertise and commitment to the economic development of Austria,” Cacdac said.
Kraus-Winkler, for her part, said the Philippines is the first country which Austria has entered into a memorandum of understanding with that covers all areas of mutual cooperation on recruitment and vocational training when the latter started focusing on attracting skilled workers abroad.
“Austria has many decades of excellent experience with qualified workers from the Philippines, and we are truly grateful for the reliable support,” said Kraus-Winkler.
Based on the DMW data last year, there are around 5,824 OFWs in Austria with around 1,220 of these workers in the hospitality and food service category and 749 in the health and social work service sector.
Cacdac said the partnership reaffirms the long-standing friendship, cooperation and mutual respect between the Philippines and Austria, particularly in the field of labor and employment.
The MOU ensures strengthened protection of the rights and welfare of Filipino migrant workers, and support while they undergo skills assessment, education, and equivalence training and licensing in Austria.
The DMW and BMAW also agreed to develop a work-based vocational training framework and other technical capacity-building initiatives to upgrade the skills and expertise of Filipino workers. (Trixee Rosel)