Jinggoy wants Noynoy to certify as urgent bill for maids’ wages

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada yesterday urged President Aquino to certify as urgent the bill seeking to increase mininum wage for household helpers or “kasambahay” along with additional benefits, saying that the measure is long overdue.

Estrada also twitted colleagues from the House of Representatives for apparently sitting on the bill, which has been pending in Congress for almost two decades now while the Senate’s version had been approved as early as December last year.

“President Aquino must certify this bill as urgent as the Philippines had already committed to the international community that it will be one of the first countries to ratify the Domestic Workers Convention of 2011. Further, it is also our country as Chairman of the ILO (International Labor Organization) Committee on Domestic Workers that steered the passage of this measure. Otherwise, our policies would be perceived as inconsistent and hollow,” he said.

The ILO in Geneva recently approved in the plenary Domestic Workers Convention of 2011 which sets international labor standards into the informal economy of domestic work and provides additional benefits and equal labor rights as that of a regular employee, such as day off, limit on in-kind compensation, freedom of association, among others.

The Senate leader lamented the fact that while the upper chamber’s version of the bill was approved on third and final reading, the lower house is yet to come up with its counterpart measure until now.

“It has been eighteen years already since 1993 when the salaries of our kasambahays have been raised. Plus, we know that this sector of our labor force is oftentimes overworked but underpaid, delivering round the clock service at every beck and call of their employer,” he said.

In the Senate-approved bill, household workers (defined as maids, cooks, yaya, houseboys) in Metro Manila will receive P2,500 as monthly minimum wage, while those in chartered cities will receive P2,000.

Senate Bill 78 also requires employers to secure membership and benefits from Social Security System (SSS), PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG for their house helpers.

The Senate has also approved the same proposal since the 13th Congress (2004-2007), while the original bill dates back in 1996.

The senator, concurrent chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development and of the congressional oversight committee on labor and employment (COCLE), said that while recent developments in the international arena are very much welcome as a strong impetus for congressional action on the Kasambahay Bill, one need not look far to realize that household workers deserve attention and added protection. –Angie M. Rosales, Daily Tribune