Filipinos in Dubai to get $400 minimum wage

Filipino household workers in the Emirate of Dubai will soon receive a minimum salary of US$400 a month, according to the Department of Labor and Employment.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz made the annnouncement after the signing of a joint statement of commitment between Philippine licensed recruitment agencies and their counterparts in Dubai.

Lawyer Delmer Cruz, labor attache-designate to Dubai, said the joint statement of commitment reinforces the positive developments in the Middle East region with regard to the continued deployment of Filipino household workers following the agreement between the Philippines and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a new Standard Employment Contract for household workers.

Last month, Saudi Arabia has agreed to a $400 monthly minimum wage for Filipina maids, a year after a row over the issue halted the entry of such workers.

Saudi Arabia is a major employer of Filipinos, with 1.2 million working there as laborers, technicians, salesgirls and domestic helpers while an estimated 450,000 OFWs in Dubai are working.

They are part of the estimated nine million Filipinos—or about 10 percent of the population—who work overseas and whose remittances back home are a major pillar of the economy.

Meanwhile, 10 distressed Filipino workers overseas returned to the country on Monday from Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the help of the Villar Foundation.

The workers, who arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 aboard Gulf Air 154 at 10:10 a.m., expressed their gratitude to the Villar Foundation led by its managing director, former Las Pinas Rep. Cynthia Villar. –Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today