Ambassador Eduardo R. Meñez led officials of the Philippine Embassy in the Czech Republic in encouraging Filipino workers in Brno and South Moravia to honor their two-year employment contracts, especially if their employers remain faithful to the implementation of their contractual obligations, during the two-day Consular Outreach program in Brno on 19 and 20 April 2024.

Together with Petra Silovska, Head of the Foreign Employment Unit of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MPSV), Ambassador Meñez reminded Filipino workers that while they have the right to seek better salaries and benefits under the law, they also have the obligation to fulfill their contracts. He, likewise, cautioned Filipino workers to be more careful and discerning in transferring to new employers so as not to fall victim to bogus or non-existent job opportunities or employment schemes.

About 70 newly arrived Filipino workers attended the post-arrival orientation seminar that was held at the Grand Hotel Brno. The seminar, the first of a quarterly series for the current year, discussed the consular and labor-related services of the embassy.

Prior to the seminar, Ambassador Meñez, Minister and Consul General Indhira C. Bañares, and Attaché Llewelyn D. Perez held a meeting with officials of a major employer of Filipinos in Brno, MPSV, and Grapecare Ltd. to discuss challenges and opportunities of Filipino workers in the province, and to jumpstart the process of realizing the intent of the Joint Communique on the Establishment of a Labor Consultations Mechanism that was signed during the state visit of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Prague in March 2024.

To date, there are 1,297 Filipinos in South Moravia and majority are workers under the Czech Government’s Economic Migration Program in Brno. END.