QuestionsQuestions (POEA Memorandum Circular No. 09)
Under Section 3, Rule V, Part II of the POEA Rules and Regulations Governing the Recruitment and Employment of Land-based Overseas Workers, a recruitment agency may charge and collect from its hired workers as placement fee an amount equivalent to one month’s salary, exclusive of documentation costs.
No. The text provides an exception: if the prevailing system in the worker’s deployment country, either by law or practice, does not allow charging or collection of placement/recruitment fee, then the agency is prohibited from charging such fees.
The text discusses POEA Memorandum Circular No. 09, s. 2014, titled “Placement Fee Policy for New Zealand,” adopted on 12 December 2014.
It directs agencies to comply immediately and strictly with the placement fee ban, prohibiting them from charging and collecting recruitment and placement fees from workers deployed to New Zealand.
The text cites New Zealand’s Wages Protection Act 1983, specifically Section 12A (“No Premium to be charged for employment”). Its theme is that no employer may seek or receive any premium in respect of employment.
It prohibits an employer from seeking or receiving any premium relating to employment of any person, whether the premium is sought/received from the person employed or proposed to be employed, or from any other person.
It covers both. Section 12A(1) expressly states the prohibition applies whether the premium is sought or received from the person employed/proposed to be employed or from any other person.
The person who paid the money, or from whose wages the money was deducted, may recover the amount from the employer as a debt to the person, and civil proceedings may be instituted in the Employment Relations Authority.
Yes. Section 12A(2) states civil proceedings may be instituted in the Employment Relations Authority by the person or by a Labour Inspector designated under Section 223 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 on behalf of the person.
Because POEA’s own rule allows placement fee collection only if the deployment country’s law or practice permits it; since New Zealand law prohibits charging premiums/fees for employment, POEA deems agencies prohibited from charging placement/recruitment fees to workers deployed there.
The text references that the one-month placement fee allowance is “exclusive of documentation costs.” However, it then states agencies are prohibited from charging and collecting any recruitment and placement fee from New Zealand workers. The text does not explicitly ban documentation costs, but it prohibits recruitment/placement fees.
Recruitment agencies must promptly align their recruitment and deployment practices for New Zealand-bound workers with the fee ban, ensuring they do not charge or collect recruitment and placement fees from the workers.
The circular is signed by LIBERTY T. CASCO as Officer-in-Charge.
It would violate POEA’s memorandum because agencies recruiting for New Zealand are prohibited from charging and collecting recruitment/placement fees from workers, consistent with New Zealand’s ban on premiums for employment; the worker (or inspector) may have recovery rights under New Zealand law for amounts paid or deducted.
POEA uses the exception that if the prevailing system in the destination country does not allow charging or collection of placement/recruitment fee, then the recruitment agency must not collect such fees.