Deputy Majority Leader and ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin Tulfo wants the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to make sure that Filipino seafarers and other professionals sign contracts wherein their salaries would be similar to what is being received by other nationalities.
Tulfo, along with ACT-CIS Rep. Edvic Yap, is scheduled to meet with officials from the DMW this week to discuss this issue.
“For a long time, my office has been receiving these kinds of complaints but our kababayans are helpless because we Filipinos are not choosy,” he said.
ACT-CIS Rep. Edvic Yap suggested that the DMW should talk to the manning, placement and recruitment agencies regarding this matter. Rio N. Araja
“This is not only happening to our seafarers but also to land-based contract workers such as engineers, accountants, draftsmen and others. It seems Filipinos are receiving a smaller salary compared to other nationalities, particularly the Europeans and Americans,”he stressed.
Filipino seafarers receiving a smaller salary compared to their counterparts recently became an issue after it was reported that a seafarer went to court in The Netherlands and demanded the same salary as the European seafarers.