The Department of Labor and Employment announced yesterday that the deployment of household service workers (HSWs) to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will resume at the end of the month.
In a press statement, Labor Undersecretary Claro Arellano, head of the Philippine delegation, said the sending of Filipino workers to the Arab country will resume on March 31 as agreed upon during a two-day Joint Committee Meeting in Manila that ended yesterday.
Arellano said the measure will now be covered by a Unified Employment Contract (UEC) that provides stringent measures to protect Filipino HSWs pursuant to the directives of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The deployment of HSWs to the UAE has been suspended since 2014.
Under the unified contract, both the employer and the Foreign Recruitment Agencies, and the Philippine Recruitment Agencies are bound by joint and solidary liability should anything happen to the Filipino workers.
Similar provisions are in the standard employment contract being used in Kuwait.
The four-party contract, which becomes an addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding on Labor Cooperation with Annex Protocol on Domestic Workers, incorporates the President’s instructions for specific provisions to ensure the safety and well-being of HSWs, as follows, the right of the domestic worker to take at least eight continuous hours of sleep every night;
The right of the domestic worker to take a break that is paid, outside the residence of the employer at least one full day every week, to keep his/her passport or identification documents, the employer shall allow the domestic worker to have and use cellular phones and other communication devices and the employer is prohibited from confiscating them, opening of bank account under the name of the domestic worker for payment of salary, and allowing domestic workers to cook her or his own food.*
