Domestic workers

No placement fees for Filipinos working abroad as domestic workers, caregivers and seafarers. This was the reminder of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to prospective overseas Filipino workers.

Does sharing information on foreign domestic worker(FDW) labour laws and market conditions help improve employment outcomes? One in every five Singaporean households employs a foreign maid.

The Philippines is not the only country exerting efforts to protect its migrant workers against abusive hiring practices. In a conference last week, other Southeast Asian nations shared their own methods of keeping their overseas workers—especially the women, who are more prone to abuses—safe.

Does sharing information on foreign domestic worker(FDW) labour laws and market conditions help improve employment outcomes? One in every five Singaporean households employs a foreign maid. Access to foreign domestic workers has freed up skilled female (and sometimes male) workers to participate in the formal Singaporean economy, while relying on migrants for their household needs.

TODAY reports: A new campaign aimed at changing perceptions and raising awareness of the plight of maids here, Respect Our Rights, has been launched on Oct 21.

BRUSSELS – Between Raquel Crisostomo and Thelma Nullar is more than 30 years of experience in domestic work. Both women worked as au pairs, nannies and cleaners for different ambassadors in Brussels, Belgium, including the Danish and British ambassadors. Diplomats from NATO also hired them to clean their homes.

Hundreds of Filipino domestic workers abroad will soon undergo skills assessment to secure a national certificate (NC) that will allow them to look for better jobs.

Migrants are vulnerable to domestic abuse. Roughly 80 percent of immigrants in the United States are sponsored by US citizen or permanent resident relatives, or by employers. In a situation where one’s immigration status depends almost entirely on the sponsor, the potential for abuse, domestic or otherwise, lies in wait.

Foreign maids from impoverished countries endure physical, sexual and emotional abuse in the United Arab Emirates, trapped by a system that denies them protection, an international rights group said Thursday.

The Philippines called on parliamentarians attending the 131st Inter-Parliamentarian Union (IPU) to address the plight of domestic workers, majority of whom are women and girls on October 15.

MANILA, Philippines – Hong Kong’s Labour Department has granted foreign domestic helpers an increase of (FDHs) HK$ 100 increase in their monthly salaries, raising the minimum wage to HK$4,110 per month.

MANILA, Philippines – Compensation for kasambahays or househelp nationwide will be reviewed and adjusted by regional wage boards. Ciriaco Lagunzad III, National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) board chairman designate, said the different Regional Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) have been authorized under new rules to review and adjust the minimum wage of househelp within…

MANILA – The standard service and recruitment contract between domestic helpers and recruiters in the country have been translated into 12 local languages, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said in a news release Wednesday.

Singapore has warned maid employment agencies in the city-state against “undignified” advertising following complaints by rights groups that domestic workers are being marketed as commodities.

Reports of employment agencies advertising Filipino household helpers or maids in malls at discounts in Singapore are appalling. Such agencies have low regard for household workers and Singapore should severely punish those responsible for treating them as commodities.

The Philippines, however, suspends the accreditation of one of the two Singaporean companies allegedly offering Filipino maids like ‘commodities’ MANILA, Philippines – Singapore downplayed a report that two Singaporean agencies offered Filipino maids at “discounted” rates, like commodities, as the Philippines suspended the accreditation of one of these companies.

MANILA – The Philippines has decided to suspend the deployment of new hired household service workers (HSWs) to the United Arab Emirates, following the adoption of a new policy that bars foreign embassies from verifying the contracts of their nationals to guard against abuse.

The Philippines is investigating claims that domestic workers are being put on display in Singapore shopping malls. Philippine vice president Jejomar Binay says if the reports are correct, the practice violates international laws upholding the rights of migrant workers.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) would like to respond to recent Filipino media reports, based on an online Al Jazeera story, about the treatment of Filipino foreign domestic workers (FDWs) while they are placed with employment agencies (EAs) in Singapore.

Secretary of Labor and Employment Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday directed the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Singapore headed by Labor Attache Vicente Cabe to verify a report that foreign domestic workers, including Filipino household service workers, are being put in display and made available for “purchase” at “discounted prices” in some shopping malls in Singapore,…

MANILA – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said it will look into a report that Filipino maids are among those being exploited at a mall in Singapore.

SINGAPORE – More Singaporean employers are now tapping the services of private investigators to trail their maids during off days and monitor their activities, according to The Straits Times report.

Maid in Brazil TO UNDERSTAND how maids are regarded by many in Brazil you only have to look at @AMinhaEmpregada (“my maid”), a Twitter feed that retweets the unpleasant, aggressive and sometimes racist things that some employers say about their staff. In 2011 there were 6.7m domestic workers among the country’s 201m people. These workers…

From the Department of Labor and Employment Secretary of Labor and Employment Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz has issued Department Advisory No. 01, Series of 2014, or the Occupational Safety and Health Protection Tips for Kasambahay and Employers, to protect both kasambahay and other household members from domestic work hazards.

Saudi Arabia has set up grievance committees where household service workers (HSWs) there, among them Filipinos, could file their complaints.

Leading up to Labor Day on May 1, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh held refresher courses and seminars over the past month for all Embassy and attached services personnel on various laws and regulations affecting Filipinos in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—An international human rights group has slammed Qatar for failing to protect foreign maids and other domestic workers from exploitation, adding pressure on the Gulf state over its labor practices as it gears up to host the 2022 World Cup.

A new decree will take effect in May, requiring employers to cover insurances for domestic workers, give them weekly rests and pay them no less than minimum wages. Most of domestic workers are rural women. © ILO HANOI (ILO News) – Detailed regulations on domestic work have been issued by the Government of Viet Nam,…

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 4, 2014) – A Filipino migrant group in Hong Kong has expressed alarm over the alarming crisis on condition of foreign household workers and urged policy-makers to rethink rules and seek ways to assist them.

MANILA, Philippines – Migrant domestic workers brought into the United Kingdom by their employers are suffering serious abuses including forced labor, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Monday, March 31.