Joys, tears of hiring househelp

MANILA, Philippines — International action, long overdue, is finally going to help domestic workers, as the 100th annual Conference of the International Labor Organization (ILO) has adopted a historic set of international standards aimed at improving the working conditions of tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide.

In the Philippines, domestic workers receive 50 percent of the minimum wage in the National Capital Region, and less than 45 percent of the minimum wage in other parts of the country. Yet, the majority works an average of 10 hours daily, much longer hours than other workers who are legally entitled to a minimum.

Many hope that the ILO initiative would push Filipino legislators to finally pass pending bills aimed at helping domestic workers, without whom many households could not operate smoothly.

Everyone has a favorite housemaid story; many are enough to send expats scampering for other assignments, while a few are touching examples of how persons from different walks of life can look after one another better than blood relatives.

This is a topic that can best be discussed with examples.

My first maid – In 1969, I hired a 14 year-old Waray from Guian, Samar, to help around my hole-in-the-wall boutique-cum-flat. Referred  by her uncle, who was the building super, Rose was what falls under the category “all-around” which means she would do everything she was asked to. I taught her to cut and sew dresses, make leather handbags, weld metal for buckles and bracelets, string beads, and cook Cavite and Ilocano food.

We sponsored evening high school classes for her, but she decided not to go on further after receiving her high school diploma. She got married, had kids; so did I. And she continued to report for work, even after I closed the boutique, until her kids were old enough to support her. These days, she comes to visit during the Christmas season with her kids and grandchildren in tow.

All by myself — Today, with just me and my grandson at home, there’s not enough work to do in our apartment to require hiring a maid, not even a part-time one. There’s a washing machine-spinner to wash the clothes and a cheap neighborhood laundry for the formal white shirts and barongs for school. Divisoria is only a jeepney ride away, and a chest freezer allows storage of enough cooked and raw food for a week or so. And of course, no one else but I can cook our meals.

Being by ourselves, with no house help to pay for and feed, is very liberating. We can leave the house any time, and come back whenever we want, without worrying about what the maid will eat or do. Of course, living in a very secure apartment building affords us the liberty of leaving our flats unguarded.

No maids, just cousins – When I was growing up, Tagalog families did not hire strangers to live and work in our homes. The practice then was to send for the children of less-fortunate distant relatives, raise them with one’s kids and send them to school while they help around the house. Living in Manila, I had relatives to turn to for help and had to hire young Warays, who fortunately turned out to be kind and hardworking girls.

Different strokes – A journalist friend from Mindanao followed her own family’s tradition on domestic helpers. She was raised by a woman hired, or bought, by her mother. The yaya, who had lost contact with her own family, continued to live with my colleague who moved to Manila to work.

My friend acquired very young, uneducated girls from Mindanao when her own kids were born; the yayas were not allowed any schooling and grew up without learning to read or write. My friend did not want them to know how wretched their lives were.

Moms choose to stay home – I know many young mothers, who have temporarily chosen to give up their jobs and stay home with their children for economic and emotional reasons.

This is their typical story. When both husband and wife are working, a full-time maid has to be hired to look after the child/children. For a stay-in maid-cum-yaya, one has to worry not only about the salary, but also about a room, food, substitute maid during her day-off and annual vacation.

Meantime, to afford all of the above, the wife works full-time. She leaves for work at dawn, while the kids are still asleep, to commute to work in the city. She returns home long after dinnertime, often finding the kids already sound asleep. Husband and wife often worry about their children’s security while they are at work; quarrels and suspicions abound about unexpected visitors calling on their househelp while the bosses are away.

At the end of the month, a working wife’s salary barely covers her own daily expenses for transportation, office meals, clothes, make-up and incidentals. And she still has to pay for a yaya/maid’s own salary and expenses! Simple math leaves many working mothers with only one choice: be full-time mothers.

Of course, the best reward is being there with the children when they are growing up. Stay-at-home moms have hands-on supervision of what the kids eat, what they watch on TV, and the language they hear spoken around them. And when the kids are a bit older, many career moms do go back to work. –SOL VANZI, Manila Bulletin