Saudi agrees to lift hire ban on OFWs, higher pay

Following a series of intense negotiations, Saudi Arabia has reportedly agreed to lift the hiring ban on Filipino domestic helpers and conceded to the Philippines’ demand to increase their wages, which is among the several key reforms that the Kingdom is set to implement amid mounting calls to improve the welfare of foreign maids in the country.

The Philippines and Saudi Arabia, according to online news 24/7, signed an agreement in Manila last week setting the monthly salary of a Filipina maid at a minimum SR1,500 or around $400 from $200. Filipino maids can return to the Kingdom in a month, reports said.

Under the agreement, employers are bound to give a Filipino maid a weekly day off and an annual holiday of at least 30 days. Filipinos also get to keep their passports, which is normally surrendered to their employers upon their arrival in Saudi, and will be entitled to a free airline ticket to the Philippines every year.

Employers are required to open a bank account for the maid where they will deposit her salary at the end of each month. They must also bear the cost of her visa, residence, arrival and departure fees. Filipino maids should be treated nicely, the agreement states, and employers are discouraged from forcing them to work at another house.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila has yet to confirm the report.

The new bilateral arrangement is set to benefit at least half a million Filipino domestic workers in the Kingdom, who left the Philippines for better employment opportunities in the Arab state.

The Philippines is a major labor-exporting nation with about 8.6 million skilled and unskilled workers scattered abroad, earning more than they could in the country where jobs are scarce and poverty is widespread.

Saudi Arabia stopped issuing work permits to Filipino domestic helpers in July 2011, adding pressure on the Aquino government to provide more jobs at home.

Saudi imposed the deployment ban to protest the monthly wage increase being sought by the Aquino administration.

The ban has sparked fears that Saudi’s labor policy would increase unemployment and bear down on the country’s economy, which relies heavily on remittances of its 10 million overseas workers.

Saudi Arabia, a top destination for Philippine migrants, is host to at least 1.3 million Filipino workers.  –Michaela P. del Callar, Daily Tribune