DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Some 71,585 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have applied for financial aid from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Dubai may not be able to get the money because funds currently available are only for 17,000 yet total applicants was at 88,585 as of June 19.
This was learned from Labor Attaché Felicitas Bay who said 34,083 applications have been evaluated and 14,949 have been approved, so far. “Funding allocation is for 17,000 OFWs only,” the labor official said.
As of Friday, June 19, AKAP cash aid has been given to 10,997 OFWs, according to Bay.
“The guidelines only cover terminated and no-work-no-pay workers,” she said.
OFWs whose salaries were slashed and those on reduced work week with pay are not covered by AKAP. Those in the UAE on a visit visa are not included as well, according to Bay.
It was not immediately known whether the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila would be able to appropriate more funds considering that there are, according to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, himself, 400,000 documented OFWs in Dubai with almost 100,000 of them having been impacted by COVID-19’s economic consequences.
Meantime, citing POLO figures, Robie Torre Gonzales, Dubai president of the Filipino Human Resources Practitioners’ Association in the UAE (FilHR), said around 53,160 or 60% of the AKAP applicants are in a no-work-no-pay situation; 26,580 or 30% were terminated; and the remaining 10% are those whose salaries have been reduced.
The UAE government allowed salary reductions through a ministerial resolution which was issued on March 26 for companies to survive the pandemic’s economic impact.
“The job market is really bad. Ang daming nawalan ng work, at kung ‘di nawalan ng work, wala namang pay kasi sarado pa ang office kasi ‘di essential or vital ang industry or the job itself (A lot lost their jobs, and if they didn’t, they don’t have any pay because offices or industries deemed non-essential are closed),” said Gonzales.
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