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Local Issues

Local Domestic Workers: discussion paper from pre-summit consultations

Issues and Concerns of Domestic Workers in the Philippines[1]
Broad Discussion Guide - Local Domestic Workers

Prepared for the National Domestic Workers Summit, Philippines

Last Updated: September 15, 2005

Themes	Issues	Causes	Recommendations
Rights At Work	Labor Standards and Working Conditions
	Low level of salary	Domestic work viewed as an “unskilled” occupation Invisible nature of domestic work Mostly very young or women (most vulnerable sectors) Low level of capacity and lack of negotiation skills of domestic workers Unclear expectations between domestic workers and employers on the nature of work and conditions of work Scattered provisions in the Labor Code and Civil Code; no clear work standards
	Long and erratic hours of work
	Lack of incentives, motivations, and opportunity for advancement
	Poor living and working conditions
	Vulnerable to (and at times) subjected to physical, verbal, and sexual abuse
	Multiple tasks and multiple employers
	Lack of privacy
	No regular day-off
	Enforcement and Grievance Mechanisms
	No contract and no standard term of employment	Inadequate policy environment and guidelines to law enforcers and service environment Inability of government and other stakeholders to monitor conditions of work inside the households Lack of information dissemination on existing services Lack of “facilitators” for services
	No mechanism to ensure that employers and domestic workers will abide by the terms of contract or work arrangements
	No idea on who DWS can turn to in cases of abuse or conflict with employers

Social Protection and Safety Nets
	Very poor SSS and PHIC coverage for domestic workers; employers (and even domestic workers themselves) are not willing to pay the monthly contributions	Domestic workers are usually migrants who work away from their natural support system DW and employers Lack appreciation of importance of SSS and other protection schemes Documentary requirements of domestic workers are not available Lack of skills and information, resulting in limitations in options for domestic workers
	Domestic workers cannot access existing programs and services
	Lack of knowledge on how to protect oneself from occupational hazard
	Lack of safety nets for those DWs who have severed ties with their employers; this often results in their falling in worst forms of exploitation
	Protection Against Trafficking and Forced Labour
	Vulnerable to trafficking since Domestic Work is used to lure recruits into other exploitative work	Lack of information at the grassroots level Lack of community-based protection and enforcement mechanism Non-compliance with local recruitment guidelines
	High placement fees and service fees often place domestic workers in debt bondage situation
	Children in Domestic Work
	Minimum age of work is not observed	Perception of domestic work as a “safe” work for children Cultural acceptance of domestic work for children Lack of understanding of hazards of domestic work Inability to define scope of “guardianship” over children in domestic work
	Corporal punishment used as a form of disciplining CDWs

	Access to Justice
	Access to justice; very long and tedious process of getting favorable judgment from courts and quasi-judicial agencies	Lack of legal support for domestic workers Harassment from employers High cost of litigation
Employment	Education and Skills Acquisition
	Strongest motivation to migrate is in order to study; however, DWs fail to acquire education at all	Lack of formal educational institutions that take into consideration the nature of work of domestic workers Long hours of work and other working conditions make it doubly difficult to pursue education No accepted competency standards for upgrading the skills of DWs
	DWs who study tend to drop out or perform poorly in schools
	There are very few institutions that provides training to upgrade the skills of domestic workers (towards professionalizing the sector)
	Alternative sources of income for DWs who are no longer willing to work as DW are not available
Social Dialogue, Participation, and Decision-making
	Difficulty in sustaining membership and active participation	DWs do not have regular (or standard) day-off that could be devoted Lack of appreciation of value and effective participatory method
	Lack of mechanism for regular consultation and feedback between LGUs, government, and DWs
	Lack of participation in decision-making even at their own households

End

[1] Issues were culled from the Focused Group Discussions and needs analysis among SUMAPI members and other DW organizations

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