The Philippines has a law, Republic Act 10361, that is a reasonable attempt to secure safe and fair employment for Domestic Workers. I say "reasonable" but to be honest it's not great but just better than nothing as an attempt to lift their status into a legally recognised job. Taking that as a baseline I have written a contract which is much more generous for conditions of employment, wages, privileges and even maternity leave. But in the 18 months since I produced the first version I have not managed to get anyone to sign up to it. They seem to prefer a no obligation life, which is a pain in the butt because we had a few in the last 2 years which means retraining all the time. And, I am supposed to pay into the PhilHealth, SSS and pension thing - but they don't have any registration for these. I have registered myself as an employer ready to pay the subscriptions, so all I do is keep the subscriptions aside ready to pay in when (if) they get their registration. And, then if I do go through the process to pay their subs there is no security that they will stay for long. They prefer to say that they want to leave at the weekend or a couple of them told us and left the same day. The worse was one who stayed with us for nearly 2 years, apparently keen and dedicated, had not signed the contract but took it with her for a vacation in her home town and we never heard from her again! Messages came through the grapevine that she wasn't coming back. My current action (which is part way through for our most recent starters) is to give them a copy on starting work, then up to 3 months from starting date if not signed they get a formal letter saying the contract has been imposed by default to comply with the law. But I am beginning to think this idea of an employment contract is a non starter and I don't really have confidence that any maid is going to comply at least in terms of notice of termination. Has anyone else had difficulty applying the employment laws for domestic workers? I should add that our girls don't come through agencies. My relatives believe the "most trustworthy" come from the relatives' home province.
In the 80`s we used to get friends of relatives from 200 miles away back in the province to work for us..They were treated almost as family but leaving suddenly was not a simple matter as they had sent their money back home to their sister or brother or mother etc.. If we lived in Manila today,and needed help,we would operate in a similar manner.
Yes, that's what we do too only they are from 300 miles away. They have TV in their room, can also sit with us to watch our TV, use the karaoke, same food, go the same places as us, play with our dog in a relaxed environment. But when it comes to a contract, they don't seem interested.
I don't think in general that the sss, pagibig, or Phil health is particularly valued compared to money in pocket. We registered our maid for SSS and Phil health but that only happened because I made it happen. Real problem is that it has relatively low value unless in case of Phil health something major is required where Phil health kicks in. Value of SSS is not that high although think maid appreciated it when we left Philipines as understood that id was useful when looking for new jobs and would give her an advantage. That was actually one of reasons for doing it from my point of view. Counterside to that is having Id makes it easier for them to find another job. If want to do the right thing then need to make it happen in terms of Phil health and SSS and that involves a lot of form filling and queuing to pay at SSS offices. I got our maid to get NSO birth certificate and took her to SSS to get registered and likewise for Phil health. In terms of paying subs and submitting firms I used to do it and cover six months at a time to save on the hassle. D Contract for maid technically does not give a lot of security to either side as seem to remember that can leave or dismiss with not a lot of notice. We never actually did put a contract in place as never got round to producing one but still did Phil health and SSS as I thought that they had value but would not have had any objections from maid if had not bothered.
