POEA requires maids to have FB account

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MANILA — The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is requiring all Filipino domestic workers abroad to have a Facebook account as part of the government’s efforts to monitor their working conditions.

POEA chief Hans Cacdac said that the social networking site might be a platform of communication that domestic workers may use should they have questions and complaints.

“The account can also be used to prevent dispute between household service workers and their employers, or the worker can endorse their complaint to the POEA and recruitment agencies through the FB account,” he said.

“The creation and maintenance of Facebook account will also be required for the processing of the household service workers and the POEA will also monitor the agencies’ compliance through their account,” he added.

In line with this, all recruitment agencies were also required to have their Facebook accounts and have it shared with the domestic workers they have deployed.

On other reports, the Association of Medical Clinic for Overseas Workers Inc. (AMCOW), meanwhile, announced that the government has already put an end to the Gulf Countries Council Accredited Medical Clinics Association (GAMCA)’s monopoly of the medical examination of Middle East-bound Filipino workers.