PM calls on PNoy to certify Kasambahay bill as urgent

Press Release

June 18, 2011

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) today called on President Benigno Aquino III to certify as urgent legislation the Kasambahay bill pending at the House of Representatives. “PNoy should led the housekeeping chore and push decisively for the passage of the Kasambahay bill so that the Philippines can ratify the Domestic Workers Convention. If PNoy will give the marching orders to the House majority, there is no reason for the Kasambahay bill not to be passed,” argued Renato Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “Domestic workers at home and aboard deserve to be treated as workers not slaves that should enjoy the mantle of protection of core labor standards. For too long, domestic workers have labored without the rights, benefits and protection enjoyed by other workers.”

PM welcomed the International Labor Organization’s adoption of the Domestic Workers convention as a “beachhead in the battle to win protection for domestic workers.” PM has been pushing for multilateral and bilateral labor agreements to safeguard the rights and welfare of Filipino migrant workers.

Magtubo also appealed to the House Labor Committee to fast track the hearing for the Kasambahay bill. “We expect the members of the House LaborCom who were labor’s allies in shepherding the Security of Tenure bill to show the same political will to push the Kasambahay bill,” Magtubo asserted. The security of tenure bill that provides stricter regulation of contractual employment has been reported out by the House LaborCom but has yet to be scheduled for plenary debate.

The group however insisted that despite the landmark ILO treaty, Filipino domestic workers abroad will still face numerous threats. PM is calling for an end to the deregulation of the labor export industry and for greater government regulation of labor migration.

“The case of the Filipino migrant teacher in Louisiana shows that even professionals not just unskilled domestic workers can fall victim to illegal recruiters because of sheer desperation and the gaping cracks in government regulation of labor export,” Magtubo explained. PM is assisting a group of Filipino migrant teachers in Louisiana in the USA to win justice against their illegal recruiters based in the Philippine and America.