Hiring of OFWs For Guam Will Start Late Next Year

The recruitment and deployment of foreign workers, including Filipinos, for Guam will have to wait for another year as the construction phase of the US Naval facilities in the island has been scheduled to begin during the last quarter of 2011, and not in the early part of the coming year as previously estimated.

The design phase will start during the first half of the 2011 because many of the construction projects are of build-and-design type. Any significant construction activity in the island will start in the second half of the year.
Initial bids and requests for proposal had been published and would be completed by the end of November 2010.

The military buildup will need at least 10,000 workers but only 6,000 will come from outside Guam. The remaining 4,000 workers will be Guam residents and other foreign workers already in the US territory.

POEA Advisory: Charging Of Placement Fees Not Allowed To Guam Based Workers

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration warned anew Philippine recruitment agencies from charging placement fees from
applicants bound for the US, including Guam for jobs falling under the
H-2B visa category or non-agricultural temporary worker.

The policy, contained in POEA Memorandum Circular No. 10 Series of
2009 issued in September last year is in line with US Government regulations which forbids the charging of recruitment or placement fees from a worker as a condition for employment under an H-2B visa.

POEA has adopted a policy that prohibits charging of placement fees from workers applying for jobs in countries that do not allow charging of such fees since 2001. The US, including Guam, is now one such country that forbids the charging of placement fees from workers. Other countries that prohibit the collection of placement fees from workers are United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel, some parts of Canada like Alberta,
Manitoba, British Columbia, Seskatchewan, and Netherlands.

Administrator Jennifer Jardin-Manalili said that administrative charges carrying a penalty of cancellation of license shall immediately be filed against recruitment agencies found violating the no-placement fee policy
in these countries.

Manalili also urged jobseekers to visit the POEA website poea.gov.ph or call POEA hotlines 722-1144 / 7221155 or text 2917 for any developments on the Guam labor market.