MANILA, Philippines—Saudi Arabia should be “open-minded” about the regulations the Philippines imposed to protect Filipino household service workers (HSW) in the oil-rich kingdom, a labor official said Saturday.
Carlos Cao Jr., Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief, said labor officials would try to convince the Saudis about the need for these regulations when a delegation from Riyadh arrives in Manila this coming week.
The Saudis practically banned the deployment of Filipino domestic workers last month when they told Filipino labor officials to stop verifying new contracts for maids.
“We’re hoping that they will be open-minded. We will insist on the ‘reform package’ and maybe we can also better the terms for our HSWs. We’ll try that,” Cao said in an interview.
The Saudis reportedly complained about some provisions of the “reform package” the Philippines implemented in its HSW policy in 2006. These reforms included setting a minimum wage of $400 and a minimum age of 23 for Filipino maids.
Saudi employers also reportedly complained about the requirement that they should reveal their annual income and provide a map of their home before they can employ a Filipino maid.
“But we just want to know where they live. We don’t want to get a post office box address,” Cao said.
“These requirements were set with the safety of our workers in mind. We’ll see if we can still improve them,” Cao said.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz earlier said that the Saudis did not give the reason behind their decision to suspend the deployment of Filipino maids.
“We will just have to wait what exactly are the reasons because these (regulations) are not new. These reforms have been there since more than three years ago,” Baldoz said.
“We want to find out what’s the reason. And even if it has something to do with reform package, I cannot make a decision at my level because it has to go through the POEA board. As of now, we really don’t know,” she said.
Baldoz said the issue would be taken up when the Saudi delegation meets with Filipino diplomats and labor officials after Holy Week.
“The reform package was implemented by virtue of a POEA board resolution. At this point in time, there is no decision on the part of the board to change it. In fact, it has not been included in the agenda of the board,” she added.