DoLE strengthens Kasambahay Law

BY WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT, Manila Times, Mar 22, 2018

THE Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has taken the lead in ensuring protection for over two million domestic helpers in the country through the Kasambahay Law.

In Administrative Order 109, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd ordered the creation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) to help promote voluntary compliance of employers with and ensure implementation of Republic Act (RA) 10361 or the Domestic Workers Act or Batas Kasambahay.

The TWG shall coordinate with other stakeholders in promoting compliance initiatives by employers with RA 10361 and other related policies.

It shall draft or recommend policies to harmonize implementation of the provisions of the law at the Labor department’s field, provincial and regional offices.

The TWG, headed by Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod, shall also address issues related to the implementation of the law, including the conduct of stakeholders’ and implementors’ forum.

The Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns, as the TWG’s secretariat, shall facilitate finalization and approval of draft policies prepared by the TWG, organize a stakeholders’ conference and provide other administrative support.

RA 10361 was enacted into law in 2013 to make domestic work decent and formal and to ensure domestic workers of their rights, freedoms and privileges as domestic workers.

International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189 contains principles promoting the rights and protection of domestic workers based on the decent work framework.

The Philippine ratification of the convention was the precursor of RA 10361, which seeks to change conditions of the domestic workers by institutionalizing their rights similar to the rights of workers in the formal sector.

Specifically, the law sets the standards for terms and conditions of work, including the execution of a written employment contract between the employer and the household help.

It stipulates minimum wage, health and safety standards and compulsory SSS, Pag-IBIG and PhilHealth coverage; adopts standards for employment of working children; and protects them from unjust termination of employment.

But the implementation of the Kasambahay Law is still fraught with challenges.

Many of the domestic helpers are yet to avail of their rights as regular workers and majority of the estimated 2.2 million household workers are not yet registered with the barangay (village) government and the social protection agencies.

As of December 2014, more than 120,000 household helps were registered with the SSS or Social Security System.

A total of 24,671 were registered with the Pag-IBIG Fund and 59,734, with the PhilHealth.