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The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP)
has welcomed the drastic drop in the number of Filipino domestic
helpers deployed abroad. It says that from a high of 57,923 maids
recruited for overseas jobs from January to August last year, the
number has declined to 6,607 for the same period this year.
The TUCP calls “the aggressive
deployment of Filipino household service workers “ill-advised from
the start.”
Alex Aguilar, the trade union’s
spokesman, urged the government to discourage, if not stop, the
deployment of Filipino maids overseas because they are “extremely
vulnerable” to sexual abuse and maltreatment.
“They are liable to
exploitation because they work and live in their employers’ homes,
have no special skills to protect them and are easily replaceable by
other maids from Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka,” he said.
That is quite true. Our maids are
not only underpaid or not paid at all; they are not given enough
food and enough rest because they are required to work for as long
as 18 hours daily.
The glaring examples of sexual
abuse suffered by many Filipino maids are the videoed rape of a
Filipina, identified only as “Melissa,” by her employer, and the
rape of another by her employer’s sons, both in Saudi Arabia.
These cases are now being investigated by our government to uncover
the rapists and seek their maximum punishment by the foreign
authorities concerned for their crimes.
In the history of overseas
employment, a number of Filipino maids have died by jumping out of
windows in their desperate attempt to escape their employers’
extreme cruelty.
Many others have run away, ending
up in welfare centers of our embassies and consulates abroad. To get
back at them, their employers file manufactured charges of theft
against them to compel their return to their homes or to block their
repatriation to their homeland by keeping their passports.
Employers’ abuse is rampant
especially in some Middle East countries. While this is true, it is
unwise to clamp down on maids’ deployment totally. The government
should adopt a selective deployment policy, blacklisting countries
with a dismal record of employers’ abuse and exploitation.
Maids’ deployment should continue to countries where they are
better treated.
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, Canada,
the United Kingdom and most European nations are good destination
points. In Hong Kong, for instance, foreign maids are covered by
their labor laws and receive good treatment in terms of better wages
(at least $400 a month). They are not allowed to do nonhousehold
duties. HK employers are penalized with heavy fines and imprisonment
for nonpayment or underpayment of their wages, sexual or verbal
abuse and long working hours.
In Canada, Filipino maids enjoy
good pay ($1,000 or more). After two years of employment, they can
become immigrants or Canadian citizens. As such, they can work in
jobs of their choice consistent with their training, experience and
academic course. Many are now living with their parents and siblings
in their adopted country in relative comfort.
In the UK, Italy and other
European countries, Filipino maids earn as much as $1,000 or more.
The TUCP has attributed the drop in maids’ deployment to the new
labor policy of placing the minimum maid’s salary at $400 and
requiring those without experience to obtain skills certificates
from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
But one restriction that has
slowed down deployment specifically to Hong Kong and Taiwan is the
DOLE order preventing recruitment agencies from collecting placement
fees from maid applicants. HK employers now feel the scarcity of
maids as local placement firms have stopped their recruitment
operations.
Some unscrupulous recruitment
agencies have found a way of circumventing the deployment rules,
such as the collection of exorbitant placement fees from applicants.
They identify their recruits in their employment contracts submitted
to the POEA for processing not as maids but as cashiers, waiters,
re-packers, or by any other work category.
Two such agencies—the RML and
the Lucky International Management Services—have been sued by two
of their recruits who recently arrived in Manila after running away
from their abusive employers in Dubai.
The POEA had set two hearings of
the maids’ complaints for money claims but the principal
respondents failed to appear. This is a mockery of the POEA’s
mandate to protect the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino
workers.
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