ILO: 'Better' Pinoy households going abroad

MANILA -- The International Labor Organization (ILO) underscored Wednesday the difference between the Filipino household workers being sent abroad and those left in the country.

According to its “Domestic Workers Across The World” report, there is a noticeable difference between the two with the “better” ones being sent overseas.

“Filipino migrant domestic workers are typically better educated, have a better knowledge of English and enjoy greater support from the sending country than migrant domestic workers from other sending countries and therefore command somewhat higher wages,” the ILO said.

It noted how local domestic workers are younger, have come from poorer areas, have lower levels of education, and have less work experience.

While their demographic profiles differ, the agency pointed that both of them have shown significant increase over the past years.

Locally, the agency noted that from 1.2 million in 2001, the number of persons who worked for private households is at 1.9 million as of 2010.

This makes the Philippines have among the highest number of domestic workers locally among Asian countries at 1.9 million, which comes after India (4.2 million), and Indonesia (2.4 million).

As for those deployed abroad, the ILO said some 96,500 household service workers from the Philippines went to work overseas during 2010 alone, which is higher than the approximately 63,000 in 1995.

It also identified the Philippines, along with Sri Lanka and Indonesia, as among the top sending countries with the major destinations of Filipinos being Hong Kong, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Meanwhile, the report commended the Philippines for being one of the first three countries that ratified the Domestic Workers Convention of 2011 of the ILO.

To note, the Philippines was the second country to ratify the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 in September 5, 2012 after Uruguay.

“It’s very encouraging that some Asian countries, such as the Philippines, are moving in the right direction with labor reforms,” said ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Yoshiteru Uramoto. (HDT/Sunnex)