Less Filipina domestic helpers are being hired abroad because of a new government policy requiring increased salaries for them, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz said the country is eyeing the high-end market for Filipino domestic helpers with the implementation of the new policy.
“Let us no longer compete with other countries for the low-end market, our domestic helpers have proven that they provide good services and it’s about time that they command higher salaries,” she said.
“By targeting the high-end market we would be able to avoid welfare cases involving our domestic helpers.”
Baldoz said the number of domestic helpers deployed abroad has dropped by 72 percent in the first eight months of the year.
“From January to Aug. 13, we have deployed only 6,602 domestic helpers which is 72 percent lower than the 57,923 maids who left the country to work during the same period last year,” she said in an interview.
Baldoz said the POEA has recorded a four percent drop in overseas deployment compared to last year.
“We have deployed over 600,000 Filipino workers in the first eight months of the year so we only need about 300,000 to achieve our target,” she said.
However, the country would be able to reach its annual target of deploying one million overseas Filipino workers by yearend, she added.
Besides the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka are also exporting domestic helpers.
Earlier, local recruitment agencies have expressed their objection to the implementation of the new regulation, which among others require foreign employers to pay Filipino domestic helpers $400 a month as well as shoulder the cost of recruitment.
Recruitment agencies claimed that the new policy would lead to the drop in hiring of domestic helpers because foreign employers are not capable of doubling the salaries of their house maids.
The drop in the deployment of Filipina domestic helpers has also resulted in a slight decline in the hiring of skilled Filipino workers worldwide.
Early this year, the POEA has started implementing new regulations on the hiring of domestic helpers as part of government efforts to protect Filipina workers.