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More rallies vs hiring policy for Pinoy DH


More protest actions are planned against the new guidelines the Department of Labor and Employment issued to govern the hiring of Filipino domestic helpers and caregivers in households for overseas jobs. A group of recruitment agencies and workers led by the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME) said on Tuesday that the demonstrations against the new hiring policy would be carried out even after the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) had deferred its implementation to March 1. The group managed to gather at least 8,000 workers, most of them domestic helpers applying for overseas jobs, in a protest rally on Monday at the Liwasang Bonifacio and in front of the DOLE offices in Intramuros, Manila. Recruiters and workers are strongly opposing the government’s guidelines that raised the minimum wage for domestic helpers to $400, from $200. The hiring age was likewise raised 25 years old, from 21. Under the new guidelines, prospective domestic workers are required to get a National Certificate for Household Service Workers from the Tesda and an additional Language and Culture Certificate of Competence from the OWWA. Those with two years experience, while not required to undergo the Tesda training, are still mandated to get the certificates after undergoing an assessment. The guidelines also include a similar provision for the OWWA certificate. The groups particularly objected to the requirement for domestic helpers to undergo language proficiency training prior to deployment. “This is an additional financial expense for our poor domestic helpers. And we cannot afford too much expenses," Eduardo Mahiya, president of FAME, said. In an interview, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said the new hiring policy was drawn up for the benefit and protection of Filipino domestic helpers. The protest actions against the new guidelines, Brion said, was actually instigated by recruitment agencies because of the provision prohibiting the collection of placement fees on Filipino domestic helpers, but they will have to undergo a 27-day skills training and attend a country-specific language and culture orientation. Brion sought to allay fears of some quarters that the new policy would result in a substantial reduction in the hiring of Filipino domestic helpers because of the higher salary rate. “Kung mayroon man po na masasarhan ng trabaho para sa ating mga kababayan ay magbubukas naman tayo ng bagong labor market (If our countrymen will be deprived of work in another country, we will open a new labor market)," he assured. Dolores Balladares, chairman of the militant United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-Migrante-HK) earlier said the $400 minimum monthly wage for domestic workers and the “no placement fee" provision are but “sugar coatings" to cover the real intent of the new scheme. “If the Philippine government cannot even effectively address the problem of recruitment agencies piling dubious charges on top of the legal placement fee, how can it even monitor the implementation of its minimum wage requirement which, in the first place, is instituted by the host government?" she asked. Hong Kong is home to about 118,000 domestic helpers. The territory is one of the main destinations for Filipino, mostly women, household helpers. - GMANews.TV

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