MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 2, 2013) – President Benigno Aquino’s signing of the Kasambahay Bill or Domestic Workers’ Act into law and lawmakers who were behind it continue to draw praises and accolade as the landmark legislation aims to protect household workers and their welfare.
“We are elated at the news and excited at what this can translate into for the millions of Domestic Workers in the country” Maria Cecilia Oebanda, President of Visayan Forum Foundation Inc., said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The Visayan Forum is the leading organization which pioneered campaigns for the rights of domestic workers hand in hand with the Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Manggagawang Pantahanan sa Pilipinas and other partners.
“This is a victory for all domestic workers, and we congratulate them as much as we encourage them to know the law because only then can the law serve its purpose – to protect and promote the welfare of domestic workers”, Oebanda said, whose group campaigned hard for more than two decades of innovative work to end modern–day slavery in the country.
Batas Kasambahay requires both employer and the domestic worker to execute a contract of employment, thereby effectively protecting both parties. It not only sets the minimum wage of a domestic worker, it also ensures that they are duly registered by their employers in social benefit systems such as SSS, Pag-Ibig, and PhilHealth.
It also protects the right of a domestic worker to access educational opportunities. Further, the law enjoins the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards to adjust the minimum wage rates accordingly, after the Law’s first year of effectivity.
Apart from debt bondage, the law also declares some acts as unlawful especially those that take advantage of a domestic workers’ vulnerability, promote harsh conditions of work, and interferes with the worker’s right to his or her wage.
“We thank the President for signing Batas Kasambahay, the Vice-President for his staunch support, the Senators Jingoy Estrada and Loren Legarda, and Congressmen Jack Enrile and Emil Ong, who have joined our cause and passed this law, and all of the organizations and individuals who have contributed to this victory,” Oebanda said.
“We have lobbied for the Batas Kasambahay for more than 18 years, we have earned the ire ofnumerous individuals and groups, we broke down walls for this law, and we will not stop at its promulgation,” she added.
She said Visayan Forum intends to go to the provinces to help popularize the Law and educate stakeholders.
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