|
What is Illegal Recruitment?
Any act of canvassing,
enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring or procuring
workers and includes referring,
contract services, promising
or advertising
for employment abroad, whether for profit or not,
when undertaken by a non-license or non-holder of authority
contemplated under Art 13 (F) of Presidential Decree No. 442, as
amended otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines:
Provided, That any such non-licensee or non-holder who, in any
manner, offers or promises for a fee employment abroad to two or
more persons shall be deemed so engaged. (sec. 6, RA 8042).
It shall
likewise include the following acts, whether committed by any
persons, whether a non-licensee, non-holder, licensee or holder of
authority.
(a) To charge
or accept directly or indirectly any amount greater than the
specified in the schedule of allowable fees prescribed by the
Secretary of Labor and Employment, or to make a worker pay any
amount greater than that actually received by him as a loan or
advance;
(b) To furnish
or publish any false notice or information or document in relation
to recruitment or employment;
(c) To give any
false notice, testimony, information or document or commit any act
of misrepresentation for the purpose of securing a license or
authority under the Labor Code;
(d) To induce
or attempt to induce a worker already employed to quit his
employment in order to offer him another unless the transfer is
designed to liberate a worker from oppressive terms and conditions
of employment;
(e) To
influence or attempt to influence any persons or entity not to
employ any worker who has not applied for employment through his
agency;
(f) To engage
in the recruitment of placement of workers in jobs harmful to public
health or morality or to dignity of the Republic of the Philippines;
(g) To obstruct
or attempt to obstruct inspection by the Secretary of Labor and
Employment or by his duly authorized representative;
(h) To fail to
submit reports on the status of employment, placement vacancies,
remittances of foreign exchange earnings, separations from jobs,
departures and such other matters or information as may be required
by the Secretary of Labor and Employment;
(i) To
substitute or alter to the prejudice of the worker, employment
contracts approved and verified by the Department of Labor and
Employment from the time of actual signing thereof by the parties up
to and including the period of the expiration of the same without
the approval of the Department of Labor and Employment;
(j) For an
officer or agent of a recruitment or placement agency to become an
officer or member of the Board of any corporation engaged in travel
agency or to be engaged directly on indirectly in the management of
a travel agency;
(k) To withhold
or deny travel documents from applicant workers before departure for
monetary or financial considerations other than those authorized
under the Labor Code and its implementing rules and regulations;
(l) Failure to
actually deploy without valid reasons as determined by the
Department of Labor and Employment; and
(m) Failure to
reimburse expenses incurred by the workers in connection with his
documentation and processing for purposes of deployment, in cases
where the deployment does not actually take place without the
worker's fault. Illegal recruitment when committed by a syndicate or
in large scale shall be considered as offense involving economic
sabotage.
Illegal
recruitment is deemed committed by a syndicate carried out by a
group of three (3) or more persons conspiring or confederating with
one another. It is deemed committed in large scale if committed
against three (3) or more persons individually or as a group.
The persons
criminally liable for the above offenses are the principals,
accomplices and accessories. In case of juridical persons, the
officers having control, management or direction of their business
shall be liable.
|
