POEA cancels license of recruiter for Taiwan

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has cancelled the license of Prime Stars International Promotion Corporation for collection of excessive placement fees.

Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac said he issued the order of cancellation against Prime Stars after finding the respondent liable of the charges filed by some 18 overseas Filipino workers the agency deployed to Taiwan in 2010.

In their joint statement, the complainants alleged that Prime Stars promised them jobs as factory workers in Taiwan but were made to pay placement fees ranging from PhP80,000.00 to PhP120,000.00. They also complained of unpaid overtime pay and other benefits provided in their employment contract.

Cacdac said Prime Stars violated Section 2 (b) of the POEA rules and regulations on the recruitment and deployment of land-based workers which sanctions recruitment agencies for charging or accepting directly or indirectly any amount greater than that specified in the schedule of allowable fees prescribed by the Secretary of Labor, or making a worker pay any amount greater than that actually received by him as a loan or advance.

Cacdac said Section 3, Rule V, Part II of the same Rule allows a land-based recruitment agency to charge and collect from its hired workers a placement fee in an amount equivalent to one month salary, which in the case of factory workers in Taiwan, is only NT$17,280 or more or less PhP26,000.00 as stated in their signed contract. With the cancellation of its license, the officers and directors of Prime Stars at the time of the commission of the offense were disqualified from engaging in the business of recruitment and placement of Filipino overseas workers, Cacdac said.

Cacdac also ordered the agency’s covering surety, Country Bankers Insurance Corporation to refund to the complainants the excess placement fees amounting to more than PhP1.5 M that were illegally collected by Prime Stars International Promotion Corporation.

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