Practice question
A recruiter advances travel expenses to ICC/IP applicants and then compels them to remain in an indefinite unpaid work arrangement until an ever-increasing debt is cleared. They are not free to leave. The recruiter calls the arrangement a voluntary local tradition. Which is correct?
- Calling it tradition necessarily removes labor protection.
- Every expense advance is automatically identical to forced labor, without examining facts.
- The actual coercive debt arrangement must be assessed under Section 23's protection against bonded labor and debt servitude; the label does not cure it.
- ICCs/IPs cannot invoke national employment protections.
- Only the amount originally advanced matters.
Legal references
- RA 8371 Sections 23–24: https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra 1997/ra_8371_1997.html
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