Labor Mobility

Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act (Live-in Caregivers and Others), 2009,163 (Bill 210) prohibits a recruiter from charging a foreign national who is employed as a live-in caregiver a fee, directly or indirectly, for any service, good or benefit provided to the foreign national. Bill 210 also prohibits an employer from directly or indirectly recovering or attempting to recover any cost incurred by the employer in the course of arranging to employ the foreign national.

This Directive, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2008, aims to guarantee protection to temporary workers by recognizing temporary work agencies as employers, while encouraging greater diversity in contractual employment arrangements.

The agreements established a clearly defined recruitment process which must be followed by all parties, including by private recruitment agencies (PRAs). They specify that the Canadian employers should first inform their domestic Employment and Immigration Departments about the availability of jobs and seek permission to recruit. If the permission is granted, the Departments then relays the information to the Philippines Department of Labour and Employment which in turn alerts licensed PRAs in the Philippines to the recruitment opportunities.

The agreement aims to meet the temporary seasonal needs of Canadian agricultural producers during peak harvesting and planting periods. Under this Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme the government of Trinidad and Tobago established public authorities in Trinidad and Tobago and in Toronto, Canada to oversee recruitment and placement.

The Republic of Korea introduced the Employment Permit System (EPS) in 2004, which recognized the need for low-skilled workers by Korean enterprises (particularly of small and medium sizes) in construction, manufacturing, agriculture and services, and introduced a government–to-government labour recruitment programme based on mandatory MOUs with 15 countries in Asia. A major achievement is the reduction in the average cost paid by a worker from US$3,509 under the trainee system in 2002 to US$927 under the EPS system in 2011.

Since 2015, foreign workers coming to Russia in a visa-free regime can work on the basis of special license and documents, so-called labor patent.

Russian activities in the field of migration management are grounded on the concept of the state migration policy up to 2025, approved by the President of the Russian Federation in 2012. The Concept is a set of opinions and ideas as regards the content, principles and main areas of activity with regard to migration.

The main directions for Russia’s state migration policy are:

When people apply for visas to travel to Australia for work purposes, prior to arrival in Australia they receive a booklet with practical information about living in the country, including the Australian Values Statement. This information is intended for people who are applying for a visa to live in Australia, either permanently or on a temporary basis.

All too frequently, xenophobia against migrant workers is fuelled by populist attitudes that are divorced from the reality on the ground. Wittingly or unwittingly, media can play its part in creating an unbalanced discourse about migration, including labour migration. To mark International Migrants Day on December 18, 2015, the ILO aunched the “Reporting Fairly on Labour Migration” global media competition to recognize exemplary media coverage and fair reporting on the issue.

The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) implemented a rule that provides penalty for charging and or collecting placement free from workers seeking employment in countries which have laws that provide the same. The No placement fee policy is a serious administrative offense with a penalty of cancellation of license of the concerned recruitment agencies. The same administrative rule penalized that act of charging of excessive placement fees.