The BLA on 09 July 2019, (Tel Aviv, Israel) - In another positive development, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte ratified on 13 June 2019 the Bilateral Labor Agreement (BLA) on hotel cleaners. With Israel’s earlier ratification of the agreement, this marks the completion of legal internal procedures of both countries and paves the way for its implementation this year.

The BLA on hotel cleaners was signed by Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Gideon Levin on 11 December 2018 in Tel Aviv, Israel, 3 months after President Duterte’s historic visit.

The Philippines and Israel will implement the agreement after the Joint Committee Meeting which will be convened in August 2019.There will be no deployment of Filipino hotel workers until the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) announces its full implementation.

Philippine Labor Attaché to Israel Rodolfo Gabasan expounded on the positive development for incoming Filipino workers in Israel: “We are responding to the shortage of manpower in the hotel industry in Israel and it is about time to introduce the Filipino brand of service and hospitality in the Israeli hotel industry. Hopefully, this will signal the opening up of other branches of service in the hotel industry here.”

Just like the BLA on caregivers, the BLA on hotel cleaners is a government-to-government agreement and eliminates the charging and payment of illegal fees to private recruitment agencies in the Philippines throughout the process of recruitment and deployment.  --- END