Skilled OFWs to get better pay­­ in Japan—DOLE

Filipinos who will be hired in Japan under its new specified skilled worker residency law will receive pay equivalent to local workers,  Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Thursday.

Bello who signed a memorandum of cooperation with Japanese officials in Tokyo, Japan also guaranteed the payment of better salaries for Filipino workers.

“This is why we are very thankful to the government of Japan. Aside from giving preferential priority to Filipino workers for the requirements of their industries, our workers are assured of better benefits,” he said.

He said Japan chose the Philippines to be the first to ink the agreement under the new specified skilled worker law which takes effect next week “because of Japan’s high regard for the Filipinos.”

The Department of Labor and Employment estimated that Filipino workers would corner at least 30 percent of the 350,000 available jobs Japan is opening to foreign workers effective April 1.

Under the guidelines on the deployment of foreign workers to Japan in pursuant to the labor cooperation pact signed on March 19, the ‘specified skilled workers’ will be deployed under two identified occupational categories: Specified Skilled Worker I and II.

The Specified Skilled Worker I are workers with the first level of expertise and allowed to work in Japan for a maximum of five years while the Specified Skilled Worker II refers to workers with a higher level of specialization and allowed to work in Japan indefinitely based on the renewal of their employment contract.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration will release the list of licensed recruitment agencies that are duly authorized to engage in the recruitment and placement of specified skilled workers

Among the specified skills include those in health care, building maintenance, food services, industrial machinery, electronics, food manufacturing, agriculture, hospitality, construction, shipbuilding, fisheries and aquaculture, parts and tooling and aviation.

Applicants must be at least 18 years old, must possess considerable knowledge and skills or work experience, and must pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which will be administered by Japan Foundation in the Philippines.