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A few hundred maids, in a protest rally the other day
ostensibly organized by licensed recruitment agencies, railed
against the policy of the Department of Labor and Employment
stopping their deployment abroad unless their foreign employers
could pay them a minimum monthly salary of $400.
They reasoned out that the new
policy could stop the hiring of hundreds of thousands of maids,
because many employers could not afford to pay $400 and therefore
lead to the loss of jobs. They asked DOLE to leave the determination
of their salary to the interplay of market forces.
But Labor Secretary Arturo Brion
stood firm on his decision to implement the $400 minimum salary. He
said the policy is in line with his program to dignify the status of
Filipino domestic helpers, professionalize their ranks and protect
them from abuse and exploitation.
A maid’s salary of $200 is no
longer adequate with the rise in the people’s standards of living,
according to Brion. That amount was fixed by the labor department
way back in the mid-70s when the Labor Code was promulgated.
“We are now in the 21st century
and many economic conditions have since changed,” the labor chief
said. “We should keep in step with the present realities, such as
the soaring prices of prime commodities.”
It may be true that the new wage
policy could cause a sharp drop in the deployment of Filipino
domestic helpers. It could be further slowed down by requiring
overseas-bound maids to undergo skills training at the Technical
Educations and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and take a crash
language course under the auspices of the Overseas Workers’
Welfare Administration.
But Brion said training the maids
in home skills, such as the proper use of modern appliances, gives
them quality and enhances their competitiveness in the labor market.
It lessens cases of employer-maid disputes arising from the
worker’s lack of household skills.
Brion is confident that the $400
maid’s salary is achievable, pointing out that Hong Kong employers
are actually paying the equivalent of P24,000, actually more than
$400, to their Filipino maids. The pay is even higher for maids in
the United Kingdom, Italy, other European countries and Canada.
“I have been on a marketing
mission to many countries where our domestic helpers can get better
pay, even higher than our standard of $400. If employers in Hong
Kong, Europe and the Americas can afford to pay that much, I don’t
see why other foreign employers cannot,” the secretary remarked.
In Singapore, Filipino maids
receive an average of $200. Employers can pay the required $400 were
it not for the high government levy, which is equivalent to about
P10,000, for hiring a foreign maid.
Most Filipino maids working
abroad are college graduates. They play an important role in foreign
households, enabling their women employers to take up good-paying
outside jobs. In many cases, they serve as tutors to their
masters’ children with their facility with the English language.
Our maids deserve better
treatment not only in terms of decent salary but also in terms of
greater respect from their employers. Many have lost their honor and
dignity by accepting low wages and succumbing to employers’ abuse
and exploitation.
Davide to the UN
We congratulate former Supreme
Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. who has been appointed the
new permanent Philippine representative to the United Nations Vice
Ambassador Lauro Baja Jr. This could be the crowning glory of his
public career spanning decades in the legislative and judicial
branches of the government.
Born in Argao, Cebu, Davide first
gained national prominence as delegate to the Constitutional
Convention in 1971, member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission,
representative to the Interim Batasan Pambansa and chairman of the
Commission on Elections.
He can put his wealth of
experience in the judiciary and lawmaking to good use in his new
diplomatic position. He used to be honorary president of the World
Jurists Association and member of the Advisory Council of Eminent
Jurists under the UN Development Program.
We also wish to congratulate
Ambassador Baja for doing a splendid job during his stint as the
country’s permanent representative to the UN.
My belated congratulations also
to Ambassador Willy Gaa who recently presented his credentials to US
President George W. Bush as the Philippine envoy to the United
States. An accomplished diplomat, he was my ambassador when I was
the labor attaché to Libya.
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