Online Portal Lets OFWs Rate Recruiters, Share Experiences and Find Agencies

While it is possible to find a job outside the Philippines via direct hiring from these companies, this does have its own risks; plus, it is actually more difficult to get a job in this manner. This is the reason why most overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) pass through an agency, no matter what their job might be.

The sad thing about this is that agencies hold a lot of power over these OFWs, mostly because they know that the workers need them to find a job abroad.

Photo credit: Malacañang / ABS-CBN

Unscrupulous recruitment agencies take advantage of the lack of law enforcement by governments or because workers are simply not aware of their rights,” admitted International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

It’s time to put power back into workers’ hands to rate the recruitment agencies and show whether their promises of jobs and wages are delivered.

Of course, there are a lot of good agencies that assist the workers every step of the way, especially when they encounter problems abroad but there are others that are there for the money and seem to disappear in times of trouble.

Under the administration of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, a new online portal was launched, in a bid to help protect OFWs from unscrupulous agencies.

The Migrant Recruitment Advisor (MRA) [https://www.recruitmentadvisor.org/] bills itself as a global recruitment and employment review platform that allows OFWs and other foreign service workers to access information and place review on recruitment agencies as they seek a job abroad.

There are more than 10,000 recruitment agencies listed on the MRA, with OFWs able to read the corresponding reviews for these recruitment agencies; they can also write their own experiences for others to see.

The MRA works on the premise that the best advisor regarding an agency’s capabilities and treatment of its clients/workers are those who had experienced their services first hand. So, the OFWs can also become recruitment advisors for others, giving everyone a better chance of finding the right agency that would best respond to their needs.