31 January 2008 – Philippine Envoy to the Court of St. James Edgardo Espiritu reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that Filipino senior care workers in the United Kingdom have won significant concessions from the British Home Office that would facilitate the renewal of their work permits.

Under the new guidelines issued by the UK Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) of the Home Office Department, the waiver of the skills criteria for work permit holders has been extended to those who have changed their employers due to the refusal of their previous employers to pay the required minimum hourly rate of  7.02 Pound wage. Previously, transfer applications had been treated as new applications subject to strict compliance with existing skills criteria making renewal of work permits extremely difficult.

“Under the old guidelines, Filipino senior care workers whose employers refuse to pay the required hourly rate simply have no choice but to depart from the UK upon completion of their contract,” Ambassador Espiritu stressed.

The new guidelines ensured the renewal of work permits for those who are only a year away of the minimum 5-year eligibility requirement for permanent settlement in the United Kingdom. The skills criteria and the required 7.02 Pound hourly rate for care workers who have been in the United Kingdom prior 31 December 2003, has been waived.

“Without those changes , thousands of Filipino senior care workers would have ended up without work,” Ambassador Espiritu added.

The Ambassador expressed the Philippine Government’s heartfelt appreciation to the UK Government and Parliament, and to Filipino and British NGO’s based in the United Kingdom for their unwavering support for migrant workers and for the promulgation of the new guidelines.

It may be recalled that during her UK visit in December 2007, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo raised the issue concerning Filipino senior care workers with British Government officials and parliamentarians, and requested their assistance in protecting the continued employment of Filipinos in their country.