Among Asia-Pacific countries, PHL ranks third-largest supplier of domestic workers

The International Labor Organization (ILO) said the Philippines is now the third largest source of domestic workers across the Asia Pacific with 1.9 million of them. Filipino workers are preferred by rich households in Arab states with their good command of the English language.

The ILO report released on Thursday said while the Asia Pacific leads as the world’s source of domestic helpers, 21.5 million out of the world’s 52.6 million domestic workers, these workers are still deprived of legal protection and decent work conditions.

Of these, 21.5 million (41 percent) domestic workers are in Asia Pacific and 19.6 million (37 percent) in Latin America and the Caribbean, said the ILO report.

“Migrant domestic workers from the Philippines tend to have relatively higher levels of education and a good command of English, which puts them in high demand, especially by elite families in the United Arab Emirates,” the ILO report added.

The ILO said, however, that majority of these workers are deprived of their rights and welfare entitlements while working overseas. Although domestic workers are entitled to a weekly day of rest, only 3 percent of Asia’s domestic helpers enjoy such right.

Also, the ILO report said the lack of minimum-wage entitlement as well as maternity leave and maternity cash benefits of workers are among the rights violations inflicted by host countries among domestic helpers. The ILO has urged host countries of domestic workers to ratify the ILO Convention 189 on the Protection of Rights of Domestic Workers, which engages them to become part of the formal work sector and entitled to rights and privileges.

Three countries, including the Philippines, Uruguay and Mauritius, have ratified the ILO Convention for Domestic Workers in 2012, which is due to enter into force in September 2013.

Malte Luebker, senior specialist of ILO Asia and the Pacific and author of the report said “excluding domestic workers from basic labor protection reflects an outdated view that domestic work is somehow not real work.”

“We must recognize that domestic workers don’t just care for families, but create value for the economy by allowing more workers, often with valuable skills, to leave the house and take up paid work. Domestic workers clearly deserve a better deal,” said Luebker.

“The convention sets a new global benchmark which countries can use to assess their own legislation,” said Yoshiteru Uramoto, ILO regional director for Asia and the Pacific.

“It’s very encouraging that some Asian countries, such as Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore, are moving in the right direction with labor reforms. But this report makes it clear that more action is needed, by more countries,” he said.

The report, launched at ILO’s Geneva headquarters, showed that the number of domestic workers had grown significantly in the past 15 years, from 33.2 million in 1995.

Within Asia, the largest numbers of domestic workers are found in India (4.2 million), Indonesia (2.4 million) and the Philippines (1.9 million). But the ILO report said the figures exclude an estimated 7.4 million children (aged 15 years and below) who are engaged in domestic work.

The ILO report said the major destinations for Filipino domestic workers are Hong Kong (China) and Gulf countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

In 2010 alone, more than new 96,500 household service workers from the Philippines went to work overseas during 2010 alone.

The report added that the outflow of domestic workers from the Philippines has increased, from approximately 63,000 in 1995, and women comprise the overwhelming majority of Filipino migrant domestic workers. –Estrella Torres / Reporter, Businessmirror