At least 1,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) picketed the DOLE office in Intramuros to protest the new government policy.
They complained that some foreign maids accept salaries as low as $150 a month and nobody will hire Filipino domestics for a salary of $400.
Alfredo Palmiery, chairman of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, said at least 50,000 Filipino domestic helpers cannot find employment abroad because of the new hiring policy of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration that requires employers to pay OFWs wages not less than $400 a month.
In Zamboanga City, some 500 OFWs and representatives of recruitment agencies staged a rally outside the POEA regional office to demand the scrapping of the salary measure.
"Who will hire me if the government will require a $400 minimum wage when there are other nationals like Russians, Thais and Indonesians who are willing to accept salaries as low as $150," said one of the rallyists who identified herself as Jocelyn, a 35-year-old mother from Davao City.
She said that she has been working as a domestic helper in Kuwait for the past 12 years and receives a minimum of $200 a month.
"The $200 is already enough to raise my family, including my three children who are all studying," said Jocelyn.
She insisted that she and other Filipino domestic helpers would rather accept lower salaries than lose their jobs.
Jocelyn had returned to the country five months ago after finishing her contract, but she could not immediately go back because of the new policy.
While POEA has allowed a transition period in the new salary requirement, Palmiery said, the POEA is still requiring departing maids to undergo skills and language training.
Local recruiters called on DOLE and POEA to indefinitely suspend the implementation of the new policy until the government could come up with a more reasonable policy.
This developed as Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director general Augusto Syjuco disclosed that the agency had started a new program dubbed as "technical-vocational education and training (TVET) for returning housemaids, other OFWs, and unemployed workers.
Syjuco said the program aims to expand the reach of the technical-vocational and education and training opportunities to the various communities nationwide with the help of local government units, barangays and civic groups.
Meanwhile, Sen. Joker Arroyo has proposed a 10-percent salary hike for government employees including police and military personnel to augment their income starting this year. — With Roel Pareño, Nestor Etolle, Christina Mendez