MANILA, Philippines — Migrant groups on Thursday slammed the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan for advising overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) there to accept lower wages to avoid being retrenched by companies suffering from the global economic downturn.

The Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Migrants Mission (APMM) and Migrante-International in Manila branded as a “complete sellout” an advisory issued Feb. 4 by MECO’s labor affairs director Rodolfo Sabulao which stated, among other things, that OFWs may agree to flexibility measures such as salaries below the minimum allowed by Taiwan’s labor laws.

The APMM sent the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) a copy the two-page advisory, which was noted and signed by MECO resident representative Antonio Basilio.

MECO is Manila’s equivalent of an embassy as there are no official diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Taiwan.

The advisory reported that Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs had issued an order requiring employers affected by the global financial crisis to pay foreign workers a minimum salary of 17,280 New Taiwanese dollars (about P24,300).

“However, as a measure to survive the current global financial crisis, the CLA also allows affected companies to implement flexible work arrangements that may reduce the working time and the salary even below the minimum wage of NTS 17,280 provided written agreement is reached with the workers before implementing any new or altered policy,” Sabulao said.

APMM and Migrante, however, said the CLA head, Ju Hsuan Wang, had earlier clarified that the monthly payment may not be lower than the minimum wage.

The APMM area coordinator in Taiwan, Gi Estrada, claimed MECO distributed the advisory to the OFWs only on Sunday.

She accused MECO and the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) of prioritizing the interests of the Taiwanese government, employers and private recruiters instead of the OFWs.

“MECO which is directly under the Office of the President would rather not rock the boat so that its nationals can remain in Taiwan even if it agrees that they can be exploited and oppressed by their employers and Taiwanese brokers. It would rather have them there then come back to the Philippines only to find out that its government has nothing to offer them than small amounts of loans to set up a business when most businesses are failing,” Estrada said in an emailed statement.

“Instead of insisting that international labor standards be strictly implemented, the Philippine government seems to meekly accept terms that will make the plight of OFWs in Taiwan even bleaker,” Migrante chair Garry Martinez said.

Martinez said the advisory was “sufficient proof that MECO, and for that matter, the government of [President Gloria Macapagal] Arroyo, have no intention to protect the economic and labor rights of OFWs affected by the global financial crisis.”

Estrada also belied an item in the advisory saying that under Article 29 of the Immigration Act of Taiwan, foreign workers are not allowed to participate in any protest actions, including those related to labor disputes.

According to Estrada, Taiwan’s Immigration Department had already amended the provision on Nov. 30, 2007 and now allows migrant workers to exercise their right to lawful assembly. She said APMM and Migrante’s chapter in Taiwan, along with other migrant groups and local workers organizations on the island, had lobbied for the reversal of the restriction.

“That’s the problem with MECO. It just keeps quiet and justifies anti-migrant policies of Taiwan because it says that it has to respect the policies, regulations and laws of another state even if such violate the laws of the Philippines or even universal human rights declarations. Is this not a sell-out?” she said.

Martinez said OFWs in Taiwan are also suspicious about another item in the advisory which says “assistance teams” were to be sent by DoLE and MECO to Taiwan to conduct livelihood orientation seminars, profiling, counseling and referral to local and overseas employers and other reintegration programs for OFWs

“We believe that the so-called assistance teams dispatched were actually sent to convince our workers to just accept the flexibility terms, no matter how exploitative,” he said.

MECO recently issued a statement criticizing the APMM for blaming the Philippine government instead of offering solutions to the jobs crisis facing OFWs on the island.