MANILA — An influx of Filipino professionals and other skilled workers into Spain is expected with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Manila and Madrid, Malacañang Palace said yesterday.

In a news release posted in the government’s official website, Malacañang said Spain is a preferred destination of overseas jobseekers because workers are protected by the country’s labor and social laws regardless of nationality.

“Discrimination in the workplace is practically unheard of,” said the palace report.

“Working conditions in Spain are good — far better than in other countries with heavy concentrations of migrant workers,”

Philippine Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, who is part of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s entourage to Spain, signed the memorandum with her Spanish counterpart on Thursday.

Most of the estimated 100,000 Filipinos currently working in Spain are caregivers and househelps, who are getting a monthly salary of 600 euros (roughly P40,000).

According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the amount is higher than the minimum wage of €500, which other unskilled migrant workers from other countries receive.

OFWs also receive two mandated bonuses, one in July and the other in December, each equivalent to their monthly basic pay, the DOLE said.

In addition, they get a 14th month bonus, 30 days paid vacation leave, which is convertible to cash, one and one-half days off, free housing/accommodation and meals for stay-ins, social security coverage to include medical and hospital benefits, and overtime pay and additional compensation for night work.

Foreign workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements industry-wide, including provisions for incremental wage increase annually.

“Given these conditions, migrant Filipino workers are able to maximize earning and employment potential and, at the same time, are able to receive other benefits such as travel with their employers within or outside Spain, acquisition of skills and expertise on the job, and from the more generous employers — additional income for extra work,” said the department.

Genteel People

A report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Friday said Filipinos in Spain also find the Spanish people to be genteel, polite, hospitable, friendly and laid back.

“They are hospitable and generous ... maybe we got our world-famous trait of being hospitable from them,” Cristina Canuelo of Mandaluyong City was quoted by the Inquirer as saying.

Canuelo works at the Los Nogales Nursing Homes in Madrid, according to the Inquirer.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said the Philippines hopes to get a big slice of Spain’s growing health care market, which would need one million caregivers in five years.

Sto. Tomas was quoted as saying Filipino caregivers and other skilled OFWs were unable to penetrate the Spanish market because of strict immigration rules and the inability of most Filipinos to speak the Spanish language.

But with the memorandum of undertaking, the immigration restrictions are supposed to be relaxed.

According to Malacañang and the DOLE, Filipinos have an edge over other foreign workers in Spain’s labor market because of their reputation of honesty, industriousness and loyalty.

“These are traits that will have to be carefully and consciously nurtured if Filipinos are to sustain their preferred status in Spain and elsewhere,” Sto. Tomas said.

She also said Spain-bound OFWs would have to undergo a crash course on the Spanish language as part of the agreement.

‘Time to Invest in RP’

Meanwhile, President Arroyo called on Spanish companies to use the stable Filipino market as a gate to Asia. Arroyo was speaking to a group of Spanish legislators on her first official visit to Spain. She arrived in Madrid after a private visit to northern Spain.

Parliament President Manuel Marin praised the Philippines for abolishing the death penalty, expressing admiration for a person like Arroyo who “kept her word.”

Speaking in Spanish, Arroyo described Spain as the Philippines’ “partner in the fight against terrorism.”

Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila also delivered the same message on Thursday to the members of the Confederation of Employers and Industries of Spain (CEOE), the top business organization in Spain with a membership of one million private and public companies.

“The time to invest in the Philippines is now!” Favila said, citing opportunities for successful Philippine-Spanish business partnerships under the administration of President Arroyo.

He said the Arroyo administration has implemented a reform agenda that provides very clear directions and rests on strict adherence to macroeconomic fundamentals, investments in vital infrastructure and increased revenue through new taxes and improved tax collection.

Special Relations

He said that the current level of business between Spain and the Philippines does not reflect the special relations between the two countries. Spain ranks 32nd among the country's trade partners, accounting for only 0.18 percent of the total trade of the Philippines.

Among the member-countries of the European Union (EU), Spain ranked 9th in 2005 as Philippine export destination while two-way investments remain low.

Calling for the strengthening of Philippine-Spain economic relations, Favila said that while the two countries have existing bilateral agreements on the protection and promotion of investments and the avoidance of double taxation, the level of engagement, especially in terms of information flows, needs to be intensified.

He cited the information and communications technology, renewable energy, tourism, infrastructure and logistics sectors as the best opportunities for Spanish businesses.

Favila also told Spain’s business community that the Philippines has emerged as the leading location in the Far East for outsourced call center operations, an industry which has registered a growth rate of over 100 percent from only $24 million in 2002 to roughly $1.6 billion in 2005.

“Offshore IT-enabled services to the Philippines could provide as much as 66 percent cost-savings to many Spanish companies, greatly enhancing their capability to compete in the world market,” Favila added.