THE Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said the United Kingdom (UK) wants to sign a new bilateral labor agreement (BLA) with the Philippine government, which will exempt the European country from the deployment cap of health care workers (HCW).
In an online press briefing on Monday, POEA Administrator Bernard P. Olalia said the British government sent them a letter indicating they wish to revive the expired BLA for the deployment of Filipino HCWs to UK under a government-to-government arrangement.
“We are just waiting for the official notice for their request, which will pass through the necessary protocol,” Olalia said.
Without the accord, the POEA head said it is unlikely the government will grant the UK’s request to be exempted from the 5,000 deployment cap that Manila imposed to ensure that the Philippines will not suffer a shortage of HCWs vital to its Covid-19 response.
“If hiring is through a government-to-government [scheme], it will not be counted under the cap since it will be a state obligation under the bilateral labor agreement,” Olalia explained.
Currently, all Filipino HCWs are deployed to UK through Philippine recruitment agencies and are counted under the 5,000 cap.
Last month, Olalia said around 3,000 of the deployment cap for this year has already been used.
Once the cap is reached, POEA will stop the processing the documents of HCWs bound for abroad until it gets additional guidance to increase the quota from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).
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