Recruitment agencies in Kuwait are now required to place US$10,000 in escrow for Filipino domestic worker clients.
Ma. Teresa Olgado, assistant labor attache to Kuwait, said that recruitment agencies are required to set up the accounts, which will serve as a kind of insurance for their migrant worker clients, Kuwait Times reported.
“This is to protect the interests of our workers and provide better protection, especially to household service workers,” Olgado said.
Olgado said the deposit will primarily be for the settlement of legal claims and for the resolution of awards arising from violation of contracts of employment.
Bernard B. Olalia, administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, said that the new rule will boost compliance of recruitment agencies in Kuwait in the monitoring of Filipino domestic workers, Business Mirror reported.
“The recruitment agencies will be the ones to ask employers to pay the claims of Filipino workers since it could be charged to them (the agencies) if employers will not pay the claims,” Olalia said.