Extraordinary occupational hazards: PH seafarers during the pandemic

[OPINION] Extraordinary occupational hazards: PH migrants during the pandemic
Dada Docot April 25, 2020 https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/258927-opinion-filipino-migrants-...

What are the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on Filipino overseas workers? The author places seafarers and nurses in the spotlight.

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The events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic prompt us to think about the repercussions of these times on the Philippines, which has 10 million members of its population living and working beyond its borders. With overseas Filipino workers contributing to almost 10% of the country’s GDP, the Philippines does not tone down on its rhetoric of Filipino migrants as heroes, whose labors are critical to the country’s economic survival. What “extraordinary occupational hazards” affecting overseas Filipino migrants are produced during these turbulent times? What are the consequences of these times on Filipino overseas workers?

To think through these questions, I highlight two scenarios.

Scenario 1: Turbulent seas, turbulent homecomings

The world watched with bated breath the horror involving the cruise ships MV Grand Princess and Diamond Princess, which were both quarantined at sea. More than 50% of the crew members of these two ships are Filipinos.

This is not surprising since the Philippines is the source of more than 30% of the 1.2 million seafarers worldwide; in fact, the Philippines is known as the “manning capital of the world.” In an interview in 2018, the head of the Philippines’ second-biggest maritime labor recruitment agency in the Philippines told me that their office receives almost 5,000 applications monthly. Almost 50% of Filipino seafarers are simply classified within “other” occupations. The catch-all category of “other” occupations reflects how overseas Filipino workers are rendered flexible and marginal by global capital.

On February 14, a Filipino crew member of the Diamond Princess posted on Twitter a video of the Filipino crew dancing to Justin Bieber’s “Yummy.” The video went viral, and praises for their exemplary service circulated online. On April 12, Filipino seafarers docked in Manila and faced difficulties in finding accommodation despite completing the required two-week quarantine by the Department of Health. (READ: SC upholds seafarer's right to post-employment medical checkup)

The period that seafarers spend at home during non-pandemic times could be called “anxious wait-times” because of their lack of security of tenure. Seafarers are on contracts that should not exceed 12 months, which means that they are never regularized. In between contracts, seafarers anticipate callbacks about their next departure date. Homecomings could turn into perpetual wait-times with the seafarer dreading to join the growing number of unemployed Filipinos.

This condition of irregularity ties in with the so-called 5-5-5 contracts – temporary 5-month contracts for Filipino laborers, designed so that the employee would not get regularized upon 6 months of continuous work as required by the law. A seafarer told me in 2018 that he moved from one 5-5-5 contract to another for 5 years – as a security guard, waiter, noodle cart vendor, among others – before joining the fleet of a Greek oil tanker in 2007.

Exhausted by the Philippines’ system of irregular employment, Filipino seafarers seek better opportunities on the next departing ship, baited by the lure of higher pay. However, international labor contracts are just as insecure and terminable. Pandemic or not, the livelihood of Filipino seafarers with insecure contracts is always hanging in the balance. (READ: On board and online: Why every seaman needs internet)

It is also important to draw our attention back to the ways that Filipinos were displaced historically. The colonial archives record that in 1805, young men of “3 sizes” were taken from my hometown, presumably for different kinds of labor, including indentured work on the Spanish galleon ships. In 1901, the US started recruiting the first 500 Filipinos to make up the racialized, gendered, and lowest rank of the US Navy as stewards. Today’s labor infrastructure that commits Filipinos to the maritime industry contributed to the creation of an orientation to leave, set against a context that would not provide Filipinos regular employment at home.

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