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.
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
#Report Corruption #SearchPosts #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
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