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FILIPINO
domestics and female call center agents provide the
biggest source of revenues for the Philippine government
here and abroad, but they are the most vulnerable to
employment abuses, according to the International Labor
Organization (ILO).
ILO
country representative to the Philippines Linda Wirth
said the Philippines, a state party to the United
Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw), should include in
all its bilateral and multilateral agreements with
foreign governments the protection of the rights and
welfare of the Filipino domestic women, who are prone to
physical and sexual abuse.
“Women
in higher paying jobs like those in the business process
outsourcing (BPO) and those who are in lower paying jobs
like domestic helpers here and abroad are similarly
unprotected in terms of their rights in employment,”
said Wirth in a press briefing Monday at the UN launch
of a program for Cedaw’s implementation at the Asian
Institute of Management in Makati.
She said
although the role of women in the Philippines has been
making progress compared with other women in
Asia, the nature
of the work for most of the Filipino women makes them
prone to abuses.
Wirth
noted that Cedaw prohibits women from working at night
but the Philippine government still allows US and other
foreign firms to hire women for night duty.
Emilene
Vergoza, executive director of the National Commission
on the Role of Filipino Women, meanwhile said that the
Philippine Labor Code needed amending to live up to the
work rules of the BPOs now driving the Philippine
economy.
“The
Philippine Labor Code was adopted in 1950 but Cedaw came
into force in 1981, so we need to amend the Labor Code,”
said Vergoza.
She
noted that over the last five years, domestics mostly
women deployed in Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia,
Lebanon and Israel comprise 60 percent of the total
Filipino workers, but their total share of overall
remittances of the Filipino workers is very low compared
to their male counterparts who are mostly hired in high-
paying professions.
Dr. Jean
D’ Cunha, regional program director for Southeast Asia
of the UN Development Fund for Women, said the agency
has started coordinating with major host countries of
domestic help in Asia, as well as some Arab countries to
be able to integrate Cedaw’s provisions in the working
contract for migrant workers.
She
asked the newly elected 12 senators to adopt laws for
the effective implementation of Cedaw in the
Philippines.
“Cedaw
is both a bill of rights and a platform of action. The
Philippines as a state party to Cedaw must have a
national convention to implement its provisions,” said
D’ Cunha. |
