The telephone lines of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) are often busy receiving numerous calls from Filipino workers asking basic questions about wages, working hours, overtime pay, retirement benefits, transfers, health and accident insurances, pensions, and the like.

To help empower OFWs by making them more aware about their fundamental rights and benefits under the law, POLO and the Korea Labor Education Institute (KLEI) will conduct a Trainers' Training on labor and other relevant laws.

The training is tentatively scheduled on April 13 and 20, 2008. Its target participants are representatives of the various Filipino Community (FilCom) organizations and institutions.

The participants will be trained as trainers because they are expected to echo what they have learned to their respective constituencies, hence, producing a beneficial multiplier effect.

Incidentally, the need for more effective labor law orientation and information dissemination was brought up during the Focused Group Discussion organized by POLO with FilCom NGOs and institutions last December 2007.

The recent survey among EPS workers in general, conducted by the Human Resources Division (HRD) of the Ministry of Labor (MOL), likewise reveals that many workers want to know more about their rights and the remedies and procedure they must pursue to address their concerns.

The Philippines is the first EPS participating country to collaborate with KLEI on this kind of training for EPS workers.

POLO will soon email invitations in this regard.