Domestic workers or kasambahays will be having a wage increase ranging from P500 to P1,000 following the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board’s Wage Order No. CAR-DW-03 passed recently.
The RTWPB prescribes that the minimum wage rate for domestic workers in cities and 1st class municipalities in the Cordillera Administrative Region shall be Php4,000 while Php3,000 in 2nd to 5thclass municipalities starting May 1, 2019.
RTWPB Board Secretary Augusto L. Aquillo said this is the third time that the minimum wage of domestic workers in the region was increased in compliance with Republic Act. No. 6272 otherwise known as the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989.
Aquillo said the wage increase was initiated automatically by the board a year after the previous wage order for domestic workers was issued and even without a petition for salary hike.
“We know that domestic workers particularly in Baguio City and La Trinidad area are getting a salary rate up to Php6,000 a month but there are also those not getting the minimum wage rate,” Aquillo said.
While the Department of Labor and Employment lacks data on the number of domestic workers in the region, Aquillo reminded employers to comply with the wage increase regardless if the domestic worker is in live-in or live-out arrangement.
Romelda Frances Escaño, Labor and Employment Officer III of the City of Baguio said there are only about 187 domestic workers duly registered in Baguio and Benguet while over 400 in the entire region per monitoring of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Escaño said Republic Act No. 10361 or the Kasambahay Law directs employers to register all domestic workers under their employment in the Registry of Domestic Workers in the barangay where the employer’s residence is located. She said the barangays shall also report their date to the DILG and the Public Employment Services Office for proper monitoring on the adherence to existing policies.
“This is a new law and we understand that there are cultural barriers restricting the registration of domestic workers since for some, their kasambahays have already become quasi-family members and declaring them as kasambahay may feel something awkward,” Escaño explained.
The law also states that the employer shall provide for the basic necessities of the domestic worker to include at least three adequate meals a day as well as provide appropriate rest and assistance to the domestic worker in case of illnesses and injuries sustained during service without loss of benefits.
Domestic workers applies to those working for general househelp, yaya, cook, gardener, laundry person, or any person who regularly performs domestic work in one household on an occupational basis.
Meantime, those working as service providers, family drivers, children under foster family arrangement, and any other person who performs work occasionally or sporadically and not on occupational basis are not covered by the said wage increase. PIO Baguio release