Measure to protect househelpers pushed

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker Thursday urged the House of Representatives to pass a version of the measure pushing for the welfare of household helpers.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jose Jinggoy Estrada, who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, said the passage of the “Kasambahay Bill” is long overdue.

“It has been 18 years already since 1993 when the salaries of our kasambahays have been raised,” Estrada said. “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 employers,” he added.

While recent developments in the international arena are welcome as an impetus for congressional action on the Kasambahay bill, the senator said lawmakers need not look far to realize that “kasambahays” deserve attention and added protection.

Last December 2010, the upper chamber approved its own version of the household workers bill on third and final reading.

In the Senate version, maids, cooks, yaya, houseboys in Metro Manila are entitled to receive P2,500 as monthly minimum wage, while those in chartered cities will receive P2,000 monthly minimum wage.

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

Estrada also asked President Benigno Aquino III to certify the “Kasambahay” Bill as an urgent measure.

“The President 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,” he said.

“It is also our country as Chairman of the ILO Committee on Domestic Workers that steered the passage of this measure. Otherwise, our policies would be perceived as inconsistent and hollow,” Estrada said.

Estrada, who also chairs the Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment, said the International Labor Organization 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. –HANNAH L. TORREGOZA, Manila Bulletin