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Tuesday, November 28, 2017
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OUR HOUSEHOLD workers are not invisible hands but legitimate workers. We must recognize that they have rights and are equipped with benefits they truly deserve.
So here’s one good news to domestic workers in Western Visayas: Effective Dec. 8, 2017 their minimum wage would be increased.  The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, in Wage Order No. RBVI-DW 02, provides a single rate of P3,500 per month for all domestic workers in the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental.
But looking after the welfare of our domestic workers – here and abroad – is not just about raising their wages. It is also about ensuring the enforcement of laws and treaties protecting them such as the Kasambahay Law and the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, or the Domestic Workers Convention. The latter, aside from ensuring that domestic workers are provided with better compensation, also protects them from abuses.
Decent working conditions. Just compensation. Sufficient benefits. The Convention primarily ensures these. It recognizes that domestic workers are legitimate workers, not modern-day slaves.
Both the Kasambahay Law and the ILO Convention 189 provide that all domestic workers should be informed of the terms and conditions of their employment, including salary, time of work and rest, provision of food and shelter, and vacation.
The Convention certainly strengthens our resolve and leverage in negotiating for stronger protection and better terms and conditions of employment of Filipino domestic workers abroad. It sets international standards that would make sure domestic workers enjoy effective protection against abuse and other forms of violence.
We hope that through the faithful implementation of this treaty, as well as of the Kasambahay Law, we can give due recognition to our domestic workers.
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