Millions of domestics denied basic labor rights

No matter how this administration tries to spin it, there’s no denying that the country’s economic growth is driven by the precious dollar remittances sent in by the millions of overseas Filipino workers deployed all over the world. Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show that OFW remittances increased 5.8 percent to $24.3 billion in 2014 from $22.96 billion in 2014. A lot of the dollars come from such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Yet who knows what kind of sacrifices or abuses many of our OFWs, especially those employed as domestic workers, endure for those dollars? According to the International Labor Organization, majority of the 53 million people employed as domestic workers are women, and they are increasingly becoming an economic force as they account for nearly 4 percent of all wage employment.

However, 47 million or about 90 percent of these domestic workers are denied basic labor rights as those employed in other sectors. For one, they are paid below minimum wage rates as their salaries may vary depending on the generosity or stinginess of the employer. According to the ILO, majority of domestic workers in Asia and the Middle East do not get the minimum wage prescribed by law.

Of the 53 million domestic workers, more than half or 30 million work beyond the normal working hours and do not have days off or holidays, with 40 percent of the female domestics not entitled to maternity leaves or benefits.

Just recently, the United Kingdom passed the Modern Slavery bill to combat modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Estimates by the Human Slavery Index place the number of workers living under slave-like conditions at 36 million. Critics of the UK government allege that the introduction of the so-called “tied visas” for foreign domestic workers has encouraged abusive labor practices known as “kafala” from employers mostly coming from the Middle East. Under the tied visa system, employees lose their right to legally remain in the United Kingdom if they change employers. This has affected construction workers and domestic workers, many of them from the Philippines and Indonesia who are subjected to slave-like conditions —long hours of work, very little pay, and under risk of sexual abuse.

Interviews conducted by researchers from the University College of London recounted the experience of two Filipino domestics who said they thought their conditions would be better when their Middle Eastern employers transferred to London. No such luck, because the tied visa program gave the employers the license to abuse the workers who would be declared as illegals if they leave their employers. Aside from low pay and long hours, the domestics reported going hungry and being physically and sexually abused.

The UK government has resisted moves to change the law saying it would become a magnet to domestic workers wanting to immigrate to the United Kingdom, but critics say the domestics have no choice because they are brought to the UK by their employers.

According to an article by Guardian.com, human rights advocates all over the word have documented accounts of domestic workers being beaten, forced to work 22 hours a day, not given food and worse, not paid for their work.

“When domestic workers are so systematically denied the basic labor rights afforded to other workers, employers cannot be held accountable for the mistreatment of those working in their households. Workers themselves also have no way of protecting themselves from exploitation.

“When national laws ignore the rights of millions of employed people, the message that these are not ‘real’ workers filters down, adding to the vulnerability and abuse experienced by domestic workers. Unless this changes, there is no way truly to hold those responsible to account,” the article concluded. –Boy P., Manila Standard Today