Japanese Catering Firm Wants to Hire 1,000 OFWs

Some 1,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) repatriated from Kuwait are likely to land a job, this time in Japan, with a salary of US$800.

This, as Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced that a Japanese company engaged in in-flight catering service, is looking to hire Filipino workers, particularly those who returned from the Arab State.

“I had a meeting with some Japanese businessmen and they are here and they are targeting our repatriated OFWs from Kuwait and they are offering jobs in their catering service,” he said in an interview.

“They want to hire our repatriates in their catering business. They are offering a very good salary of 800 (US) dollars. That is twice what they are receiving now,” the DOLE chief added.

He believed that the OFWs will not have a hard time, as far as their skills are concerned, since catering involves cooking and cleaning, which they are familiar with.

“Their skills as household service workers, they do cooking and cleaning. In catering it also involves food so it is not difficult to absorb them. It’s a blessing. I’m ecstatic,” Bello said.

“Our repatriated OFWs is about 2,000 but they are planning or thinking to get 1,000. Their business is in-flight catering, they might absorb half of those,” he added.

Asked if they need to be trained, the DOLE head said, “Hire them and in the process they can be trained.”

Bello said that based on their talks, the process of hiring will happen in two months.