Congress urged to pass magna carta for domestic workers

Domestic workers yesterday renewed their call on Congress to pass the law that seeks to protect them from abuses and unsuitable working conditions.

In a statement, Visayan Forum Foundation president Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda said the rights and welfare of household helpers should be promoted and fought for because they work for a living like everyone else.

The group noted the magna carta for domestic workers, or the Batas Kasambahay, is relevant and necessary for the protection of household helpers.

About 3,000 household workers gathered at the Quezon City Rotunda to press Congress for the bill’s immediate passage as they commemorated the first National Domestic Workers’ Day.

President Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 1051 last April 24 declaring April 30 as "a special day to honor and give recognition to the hidden, yet massive army of everyday workers, to generate greater awareness of the importance and contribution of domestic workers."

According to Oebanda, many domestic workers are silent victims of verbal, sexual and physical abuses including confinement and lack of sufficient accommodation.

Child and adult domestic workers also lack opportunities to complete their education, she added.

The Visayan Forum estimates that there are at least 2.5 million Filipinos employed as domestic workers. About a million of them are minors.

Oebanda said workers earn a minimum of P800 in highly urbanized cities. Those in chartered cities get a monthly wage of P650 while in municipalities, they earn a minimum of P550 per month.

She said these rates are no longer at par with what many employers currently provide. More so, domestic workers do not benefit from any law that increases in the minimum wage of workers.

The group believes that once enacted, the Batas Kasambahay will bring this traditionally informal sector closer toward the benefits and protection accorded by law to the labor sector.

During last year’s National Domestic Workers Summit, Oebanda said a national domestic workers’ agenda was developed and one million signatures in support of Batas Kasambahay were collected and submitted. However, no single step has been made to move the bill to Congress.

The latest draft of Batas Kasambahay, according to the Visayan Forum offers remarkable innovations to institutionalize the rights of domestic workers, define decent working standards as well as propose practical measures for implementation. It proposes the proactive role of local governments in providing services and local ways to settle disputes putting primacy on the protection of domestic workers while recognizing the rights of the employers at the same time.

The group stressed that among the fundamental rights of domestic workers include the right to humane treatment, basic needs, security of employment, standard pay and 13th-month pay, prescribed hours of work, regular working days, protection for minors, and membership to SSS and Philhealth, opportunities for self-development and to form self-help organizations.