Philippine E-Journals

Decent Work for a Decent World for Filipino Domestic Workers: A Case Study into the Implementation of the Philippines’ Batas Kasambahay

Carol Anne A. Puno-Resurreccion | Maria Myriam B. Bacud

 

Abstract:

In the Philippines, the emergence of service-oriented and technology-driven industries, such as the BPO industry, provided women with the opportunity to enter (or re-enter) the labor force as salaried workers. Within this, traditional tasks, such as household work, child care and rearing, were left into the hands of domestic workers, colloquially called katulong or kasambahay. ILO Convention 189, or the Domestic Worker’s Protection Convention, calls on countries to adopt labor standards that will allow domestic workers equal access to decent employment and other productive opportunities (ex. skills upgrading, continuing education). Putting domestic work at par with other occupational categories in the formal sector, the said Convention, and the subsequent release of Recommendation 201, hopes to end the precarious nature of this type of work, which includes among others child domestic labor. The enactment of Republic Act No. 10361, also known as Batas Kasambahay, spells out the Philippines’ commitment to protect locally employed domestic workers. This study assessed whether the said law provided adequate social and labor protection to the kasambahay. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and its implementation of Batas Kasambahay was the highlight of this study. Through an environmental scan and the conduct of key informant interviews, this study specifically evaluated how policies and initiatives enacted by DOLE had been mainstreamed. The output is a policy analysis, with a list of recommendations, which the DOLE and other researchers interested in labor laws may further explore.