Package of Reforms Concerning the Deployment of Filipino Household Service Workers

08 January 2007

Please be informed that the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment through its attached agency, The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), has come out with package of policy reforms aimed at further protecting the interest and promoting the welfare of our household service workers. The package covers all overseas-bound household service workers including including caregivers/caretakers in the household setting and includes the following:

1. Increasing the entry level salary to US$ 400.00 a month;

2. Prohibiting the collection of placement fee from the workers whether prior to their departure or on-site;

3. Strict verification requirements in pre qualifying foreign employers and foreign employment agencies which personal interview (if necessary) and submission of an "Undertaking" requiring them, among others, to comply with the employment contract and to attend to the welfare concerns of their workers;

4. Suspending the issuance of licenses to applicant-placement agencies using the recruitment of household workers as their new market; and

5. Imposing pre-qualification requirements for household workers which include the acquisition/possession of a "National Certificate for Household Service Worker" issued by the Technical Education and Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) and the "Certificate of Competency" on Language and Culture (of the host/receiving country) issued by the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA). Household workers desirous to work abroad can obtain these Certificates from the above-named agencies after undergoing  training on household  courses from TESDA or any of its accredited training centers nationwide and attendance in a Seminar on Language and Culture conducted by OWWA. These Certificates are necessary for the employment contracts to be processed by the POEA.

6. Making 25 as the minimum age requirement for household service workers. However, the POEA has clarified that household workers who already in Hong Kong and renewing their contracts or transferring to new employment after finishing their previous contracts or having been pre-terminated may have their contracts processed notwithstanding their being less than 25 years of age.

These policy issuances are to be made effective on December 15, 2006 following their publication for 15 days in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines.