MANILA – The financial crisis in Dubai is a cause for alarm for hundreds of thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based there, an alliance of Filipino migrant workers said in a statement.

“The sad news of the deepening financial crisis in the United Arab Emirates, particularly in Dubai, is now sowing fears of being laid off especially among Dubai-based OFWs,” said John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator.
 
Citing observations made by Nhel Morona, secretary-general of Migrante-UAE, Monterona said OFWs there are still uneasy about the worsening financial crisis and that mass lay offs are not expected to happen.

According to Morona, many OFWs have no options left but to agree to reduce their wages than be sent back home unemployed.
 
Monterona said an OFW working for a multinational company in Dubai said his salary has been delayed for two months as his firm had been greatly affected by the financial crisis.

“This means lesser remittance or no remittance at all!” Monterona said.
 
“We fear that foreign employers will use the Dubai crisis as justification to lower the salary of our OFWs despite existing employment contracts,” Monterona said.

He added that Migrante-ME has been receiving several complaints of contract switching and substitutions in UAE.

“For one, the RP government failed to ensure that foreign employers will comply with the standard salaries of OFWs as per work categories,” Monterona averred.