ILOILO CITY (PNA) - Labor and Employment Director for Western Visayas Manuel C. Roldan urged Ilonggos looking for work, especially in the United Kingdom, to be more cautious because of the ''rampant cases of bogus internet job offers.''
Roldan echoed the advisory from the Philippine Embassy in London, through the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), warning online jobseekers to be wary of attractive jobs offered by employers or their agents asking them to remit a certain amount of money allegedly to pay for the processing of their visas or work permits and other travel-related expenses.
He said jobseekers should be suspicious when employers or their agents require them to pay or remit money as payment for their visa or work permit expenses because charging of fees is prohibited under the current UK employment regulation.
Based on the advisory, those who have been offered jobs through the internet should advise their prospective UK employers to submit the original copies of their employment documents to the POLO office, Philippine Embassy in London for verification and authentication.
''Applicants should not only rely on scanned documents sent by email such as an employment contract and appointment letters as most of these are found to be forged or fabricated,'' Roldan said.
Among the jobs in the UK which have been offered lately to Filipino applicants are positions for nannies, au pair (similar to nannies except that they do other housework as well, usually in exchange for room and board), caregivers, hotel staff, store managers, salesmen, and engineers, among others.
For au pair, jobseekers should take note that the British Embassy does not issue au pair visa to Filipino nationals because the Philippines is not included in the UK's list of au pair countries. Since November 2008, the au pair visa scheme was replaced by the Youth Mobility Scheme under the new UK-Point-Based Immigration system.
For nannies or domestic workers, a candidate must have worked with the sponsoring employer for at least one year to qualify to work as nanny or domestic worker in the UK. Applicants should not expect any visa to be issued to them if they have not previously worked with their employers.
It is emphasized that application for a visa for the UK is done in the country of origin, which is in the British Embassy in Manila, and not in the UK. Thus, applicants should not give credence to the scanned copies of visas allegedly applied in their behalf by their employer's agents including immigration consultants, solicitor or travel agents, Roldan stressed.
