Kasambahays’ wages hiked

Kasambahays, or domestic workers, in Negros Occidental will soon receive an additional P500 in their monthly salary, too, Salome Siaton, DOLE Region 6 OIC-Regional Director of the Department of Labor and Employment, said yesterday.

This is because the proposed P500 increase for the domestic workers wages in the NIR will be sent to the National Wages and Productivity Board for approval and may be implemented before the year ends, Wennie Sancho, Regional Tripartite and Wages Productivity Board labor representative, said.

Siatonsaid Negros Occidental, having been separated from Region VI,was notincluded in the region’s implementation of the wage increasefordomestic workers, earlier this year.

Western Visayas was the second region in the country to implement the increase. After the Kasambahay Law took effect in 2013, wages were dictated at first by legislation, but later were approved by the RTWPB, Siaton said.

In February, Region 6 implemented the P500 increase in the mandated wages of kasambahays. For chartered cities and first class towns, wages were up from P2,000 to P2,500 and P1,500 to P2,000 for other municipalities, Siaton added.

RTWPB labor representative, Wennie Sancho, said that, though the labor department has said that domestic workers are being paid way above the P2,000 wage, there is no record to support the claim, thus registration of the kasambahays is needed.

Salome countered that, for a long time, venues were set and consultations and meetings were called, but only a handful came. She suggested that registration be made during the job fairs of the department which happen May 1 and December 8 of every year.

Bacolod City Councilor Ann Marie Palermo, chairman of the committee on labor, said the city government had already passed the ordinance sometime in 2006, long before the passage of the law on domestic workers, but was not able to implement it fully at the barangay level due to lack of financial backup.

Palermo said she will ask Bacolod City Mayor EvelioLeonardia to come up with a budget for the campaign and for its inclusion in surveys conducted every year. The registration will provide the data for the number of domestic workers, for their security and for the plans of the local government to them, being one of the marginalized sectors of the society.

Everybody must be aware of this law and every LGU has to do its share so that domestic workers will benefit, Siatonsaid.*MAX N. MACAHILO, http://www.visayandailystar.com/2016/November/23/businessnews2.htm