Filipino workers in Romania stand to gain firmer safeguards under a renewed labor arrangement that both governments committed to pursue during meetings held here on August 5, 2026. Officials agreed to reopen and update the framework first laid out in a 2021 Memorandum of Understanding, with the inaugural session of its Joint Committee now set to take place.
Central to the discussions were ethical hiring practices, decent working conditions, and mechanisms to hold employers responsible for the treatment of migrant workers. Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac walked Romanian officials through the country’s five-decade-old apparatus for overseeing overseas employment, describing how the system shields workers at each stage of migration.
“The Philippines deeply values its partnership with Romania in advancing safe, orderly, and regular labor migration. As we pursue the renewal of our bilateral labor agreement, convene the Joint Committee Meeting, and establish the Migrant Workers Office in Bucharest, we are strengthening a modern framework that promotes ethical recruitment, protects the rights and welfare of Filipino workers, and supports Romania’s evolving labor market needs. Together, we are demonstrating that labor mobility can be both economically beneficial and firmly anchored in human dignity,” Cacdac said.
Romania’s Minister of Labor, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity Dragoș-Nicolae Pîslaru and State Secretary Silvia Monica Dinică hosted the Philippine contingent, which counted Ambassador Noel Eugene E. Servigon, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration head Patricia Yvonne Caunan, OIC-Assistant Secretary for Sea-Based Concerns Augusto B. San Diego III, and Labor Attaché Geraldine M. Mendez among its members.
A recent Romanian measure, Emergency Ordinance No. 32/2026, drew approval from the visiting officials. The ordinance sets up licensing rules and a digital registration process for recruiters and employers, and it bars agencies from imposing placement fees, commissions, guarantees, or any similar charges on foreign hires. Talks extended to social protection concerns as well, with particular attention paid to protecting women who migrate for work and to tightening employer obligations.
Cacdac also recounted for his hosts the delegation’s earlier stop in Tulcea, prompted by attacks on ships in the Northern Black Sea that began on July 6, 2026. There, the group honored a Filipino Chief Engineer killed in the incident and sat down with over 200 Filipino workers at VARD Tulcea, listening to their situations and outlining what support could be extended to them.
