DOLE seeks exemption for med workers from deployment ban

FILE: Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a press conference on Thursday (Sept. 27, 2018), which is held at the DOLE main office in Intramuros, Manila.(PNA photo by Gil Calinga)

MANILA – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) have recommended to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to exempt medical workers who have completed their overseas requirements as of Aug. 31 from the existing deployment ban on health workers.

DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the recommendation extends the previous cut-off date of March 8, permitting medical workers to report to their jobs abroad.

He added that the proposal was submitted in connection with the appeal of nurses and medical workers.

“Groups of nurses and medical workers have appealed to us and because of this the POEA through a governing board resolution, if possible extend the cut off to August 31. (We requested that) those who with complete papers as of August 31 be allowed to leave the country. This is just the recommendation of the POEA,” Bello said in a radio interview Thursday.

Bello, also the chairman of the POEA Governing Board, said he submitted the recommendation to the Task Force.

“And I submitted that recommendation to the IATF with my support. In other words, I favorably endorsed that recommendation to the IATF. And I am confident that the IATF will also approve it,” he said.

Bello estimated that the number of nurses to be allowed once the IATF approved the recommendation is only 1,200.

“We’re probably deploying some 1,200. The number will not affect our medical workers here,” Bello said.

The country temporarily suspended the sending of medical health workers abroad to ensure their safety amid the pandemic.