BEIJING – To help ensure that only foreigners with work permits are in the Philippines, the Department of Labor and Employment is seeking “more teeth” to penalize companies hiring illegal foreign workers in the country.
Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III has asked Congress to give them the “punitive authority” to suspend or cancel permits of erring companies and impose higher penalties, such as P100,000 fine for every illegal foreign worker hired.
At present, Bello said they can only recommend to the Bureau of Immigration the deportation and blacklisting of foreigners illegally working in the country.
“If I will be asked, I would recommend to Congress that they give DoLE the authority to suspend or cancel the license of any company hiring illegal workers,” Bello said. “DoLE should be given enough teeth to be able to bite,” he added.
Bello proposed to slap a P100,000 fine for every foreigner illegally working in a company, higher than the current fine of P10,000, to curb such illegal hiring of workers.
“Now, our only authority is to impose a fine of R10,000 per worker. Wala ‘yun. Hindi mabisa ‘yun,” he said.
Apart from seeking punitive authority, Bello said they have also requested the hiring of additional 5,000 labor inspectors to monitor business establishments across the country.
He said they currently have 800 labor law compliance officers keeping tabs on 900,000 business establishments nationwide.
Bello said the interagency task force will soon issue guidelines on the alien employment permits and other special working permits for foreign workers.
Any foreign worker will be required to get a tax identification number from the Bureau of Internal Revenue to ensure proper payment of taxes, among others. (Genalyn Kabiling)
