Baldoz urges Aquino to sign bill on household help

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Labor and Employment has asked President Aquino to sign the Kasambahay BIll, saying it would be the most fitting Christmas gift to household service workers.

“We are hopeful President Benigno S. Aquino III will sign into law the final enrolled version of the Kasambahay Bill next week. This will be the most fitting, early Christmas gift the Congress and the President of the Philippines can give to our domestic workers,” Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said in a statement.

The Kasambahay bill inched closer to becoming a law after the bicameral conference committee managed to reconcile conflicting provisions, particularly on wage rates.

Representatives of the Senate and the House of Representatives agreed on a “hybrid” formula, setting the minimum salary for house help in Metro Manila at P2,500; P2,000 for those in chartered cities and first class municipalities and P1,500 for those in other municipalities.

“We are elated over the approval  by the Congress of the Philippines’ Bicameral Conference Committee of the joint version of the proposed Kasambahay or Domestic Workers Act,” she said.

“At last, after years of legislative struggle, we are finally very close to empowering the Filipino household service workers and providing them with adequate welfare and social protection consistent with internationally accepted labor standards, such as the International Labor Organization  Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers,” she added.

Baldoz said the law will empower the over 2.9 million household service workers in the country.

“After it is signed into law, the Department of Labor and Employment, in cooperation with other government agencies and its tripartite partners, will move fast to formulate the implementing rules and regulations of the Domestic Workers Act. It will ensure the treatment of household service workers as members of the formal sector and provide them social protection,” Baldoz said.