POEA allows multiple accreditation for manpower agencies

Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA)

MANILA— Placement agencies and foreign employers hiring Filipino workers can apply for multiple accreditation, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, the agency said a foreign placement agency is permitted to be accredited with four licensed recruitment agencies while an employer can be accredited up to a maximum of five licensed recruitment agencies, as provided by Memorandum Circular No. 6 and pursuant to Governing Board No. 3 series of 2017.

The POEA noted that approving several accreditations is still subject to certain conditions.

It said that principal/employer and the recruitment agencies should still adopt a uniform compensation package for the hired Filipino workers.

Based on POEA guidelines for dual or second accreditation, a foreign placement agency which employs household service workers (HSWs), should have employed or hired at least 100 HSWs.

For its third accreditation, the foreign agency must have deployed at least 200 workers and is required to submit a Certificate of No Pending Case from the POEA’s Adjudication Office.

As for fourth accreditation, the foreign employer, only after one year from its preceding accreditation, must have deployed at least 300 workers and should submit a Certificate of No Pending Case from the POEA.

Likewise, the foreign principal is required to submit an undertaking that it will comply with all its obligations to other licensed recruitment agencies, including monitoring the status of its hired workers.

The POEA added that only those foreign placement agencies and employers without pending cases and were not previously suspended are entitled to the said privilege.

On the other hand, DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello and head of the POEA Governing Board, noted that the new policy aims to maximize the participation of private recruitment agency in the overseas employment program of the government.