Pinay helpers to get higher pay

Filipino domestic helpers abroad are getting an early Christmas gift from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion reported yesterday that the government is implementing immediately the new policy doubling the prevailing minimum wage for Filipino domestic helpers.

"The new policy is already effective so all departing domestic helpers should receive a minimum monthly pay of $400," Brion said in an interview.

Brion added that under the same regulation being implemented by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), local recruitment agencies are restricted from collecting fees from domestic helpers aspiring to work abroad.

"There is no longer recruitment fees which means it would be the foreign employers who would be shouldering the placement fees being charged by the agencies and not the domestic helpers," Brion explained.

POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz earlier reported that the government is working on a package of policy reforms that seeks to raise the minimum monthly pay of domestic helpers from $200 to $400.

Aside from raising the salaries, Baldoz said, the POEA is also drafting other reforms that would "professionalize and empower" the thousands of Filipino maids abroad by requiring them to undergo skills training and orientation course prior to deployment abroad.

This would in effect turn them into "supermaids" or a notch or two above the all-around domestic helper and thus make them command a better salary.

Thousands of Filipino women leave regularly to work as domestic helpers abroad, where they are sometimes overqualified for the job and endure substandard work conditions and even harassment.

Some wind up as victims of illegal recruiters or find themselves in jobs which they had not applied for.