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Issue Number 29/30, May 2008

Kapatiran Issue No. 29/30, May 2008


WELLINGTON KIWI PINOY
New Solidarity Group To Support Filipino Workers In Welllington
- Mary Ellen O’Connor

Formed at the beginning of 2008, WKP was set up to support Filipino workers in Wellington, within their employment and more generally. What has become most urgent is the case of the Filipino nurses in their struggles with the recruiting agents who bring them here. These businesses charge them excessive fees in the form of high interest loans as well as providing misinformation about the nature of the employment they are entering. Nurses are told they will be working in a hospital in New Zealand. However, on arrival most find they are to be employed in aged care, unable to utilise most of their nursing training and earning significantly less than they had counted on.

They have no choice but to stay because they are bonded to these agents, for between two and three years to pay back their loans. They tend to work very hard, sometimes working a night shift on top of a day in order to maximise earnings. Shifts are changed at short notice making it difficult to have any kind of social life. They are often forced into crowded living arrangements because that is all they can afford (there have been recent articles in both the New Zealand Herald and the Press exposing the appalling living conditions and general exploitation of Filipino nurses, working as rest home caregivers, in both Auckland and Christchurch. Ed.).

Many fear unions as being representatives of established authority and are reluctant to speak up for fear of worsening their already difficult situations. The agents, usually Filipino themselves, also charge the aged care providers a considerable fee for finding staff. Dennis Maga, a Filipino trade unionist presently employed by the NZ Council of Trade Unions, based in Auckland, is working to bring some justice into this situation. Dennis’ contact in Auckland is dennis.maga@yahoo.co.nz or migrante_nz@yahoo.co.nz. Union membership would go a long way to solving these problems and key unions are already involved. NZ Nurses Organisation has already defended one case and their magazine Kaitiaki has given good publicity to this issue. Service and Food Workers Union is aware of the situation through the “Fair Share for Aged Care” campaign.

But these abusive practices are still going on. There is a pressing need to accumulate a body of evidence about these practices, in order to advance the cause and possibly take a case to court. If there are any Filipino nurses who would be prepared to speak about their experiences and have them documented, please contact kinoywgtn@gmail.com. Anonymity assured. Non-Filipinos pre-pared to help in this cause are most welcome also.

On the positive side, Counties Manukau District Health Board is in the throes of signing up to a deal with the Philippine Overseas Em-ployment Administration to bring Fili-pino nurses here directly and thereby cut out the recruiting agents. If this deal works well, there is no reason why other DHBs couldn’t adopt it.

Mary Ellen O’Connor is Coordinator of Wellington Kiwi Pinoy.

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