PHHS Maintains Its No Placement Fee Policy Category
Filipino workers going abroad are already paying enough. The flight, the training, the months away from family. What they should never have to pay is a fee just to get the job in the first place. Philippine Hospitals and Health Services, Inc. (PHHS) is reaffirming a standard that has never moved in 48 years of operation: zero placement fees collected from workers, full stop. What This Means in Practice Under Philippine law (DMW Rules, Sections 55 to 58), the costs of recruitment and deployment belong to the employer. This includes visa processing, work permits, round trip airfare, transportation to the jobsite, DMW processing fees, and OWWA membership. Workers may only be asked to cover their own documentation: passport, NBI or police clearance, PSA birth certificate, and required medical examinations. Everything else is on the employer, and at PHHS, that line does not move for anyone. This is not a promotional claim. It is a compliance baseline, and PHHS treats it that way in every job order, every contract, and every candidate conversation. Why It Matters More Now Recruitment worldwide is under more scrutiny than it has been in years, and rightly so. Workers are more informed, employers are asking sharper questions, and government offices are tightening enforcement. Agencies that quietly pass employer costs to workers, or find creative ways to disguise a placement fee as a “processing” or “training” charge, are the ones getting flagged. PHHS has declined employer partnerships over exactly this issue. If a company cannot commit to covering its own recruitment costs, it is not a company PHHS will work with, regardless of the volume on the table. What Employers and Candidates Can Expect For employers, this means a clean paper trail. Every job order PHHS submits for MWO and DMW approval reflects the true cost structure, with nothing hidden and nothing shifted onto the worker after the fact. For candidates, this means the offer they accept is the offer they keep. No surprise deductions once they land, no fine print that quietly reverses what was promised in the interview. Nearly Five Decades, One Standard PHHS has held a DMW license since 1977 and carries Hall of Fame and Presidential Awardee recognition from the Philippine government. Standards like this one are a large part of why that trust has lasted this long, across changing regulations and changing administrations. The policy is not new. It is simply being restated, because in an industry where shortcuts are tempting and violations are common, saying it plainly still matters. For manpower pooling only. No fees in any form will be collected from applicants. Beware of illegal recruiters and human traffickers. Philippine Hospitals and Health Services, Inc. | DMW License No. DMW-406-LB-08082024-R Unit 21A1, 21st Floor, Rufino Pacific Tower, 6784 Ayala Avenue, Makati City phhs@phhsi.com | +63 928 672 6409 | phhsi.com