Singapore Should Ratify Convention On Domestic Workers' Rights
7 August 2012
HOME congratulates the Philippines on the ratification of the ILO C189 “Decent Work for Domestic Workers”. As the second country in the world after Uruguay to ratify ILO C189, the Philippines has the distinction of being the leading country in Asia and in ASEAN to recognize domestic workers as workers and to say an emphatic “NO” to the continued exploitation of more than 100 million women in domestic work around the world.
“Voting unanimously, the Philippine Senate approved on third reading, Resolution No.816 concurring to the ratification of ILO Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers by President Benigno S. Aquino III on May 18.
With the ratification, some 3.4 million domestic workers working in the Philippines and abroad will finally enjoy rights as other workers do, such as reasonable hours of work, weekly rest, correct wages and benefits, protection against abuse, clear information on terms and conditions of employment, and freedom of association, among others.
Since the rapid increase in the deployment of domestic workers abroad in the 1990s, the country has continued to receive news about the abuse of domestic workers abroad. This was highlighted by the hanging of Flor Contemplacion in 1995 in Singapore over accusations that she murdered a fellow Filipina domestic worker.
The incident created a national outrage, prompting the Philippines to ratify the UN Convention on Migrant Workers’ Rights and pass into law the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act the same year.”
(Excerpts from a press release by Julius H. Cainglet, Assistant Vice President, Federation of Free Workers Philippines)
The protection of women domestic workers under national labor legislation is fundamental under ILO C189 adopted on 16th June 2011. Singapore then was among the few member states who abstained from voting for the convention. The decision to abstain was made despite the strong arguments made by Madam Halimah Yacob, the spokesperson for the workers at the ILC in Geneva last year.
Some months later at the UN, New York 2011, in its concluding observations, the CEDAW Committee recommended to Singapore to fully protect migrant women domestic workers under national labor legislation and to ratify the ILO C189 “Decent Work for Domestic Workers”. Following which In March 2012, the Ministry of Manpower announced a mandatory weekly rest day for domestic workers as from January 2013. The Joint Inter Agency Task Force also released the National Plan of Action to combat human trafficking.
However in that period of barely 6 months in 2012, Singapore recorded more than 10 fatal falls of domestic workers from window cleaning at high rise residences. In response HOME and the Indonesian Embassy called for a ban on these dangerous tasks for migrant domestic workers. The Ministry of Manpower hitherto announced a partial ban on window cleaning from high rise by migrant domestic workers.
Meanwhile, HOME has been receiving unabated number of complaints from many Filipino domestic workers of contract substitution, debt bondage and deception on terms of employment and working conditions in Singapore. These cases have since been brought to attention of the Philippines embassy in Singapore and to the POEA office in Manila for enforcement against recruitment agencies and their employers. Since then, HOME has with our cross border partner enabled some 500,000 pesos to be recovered from Manila agents and two Singapore employment agencies to be investigated by the Philippines embassy in Singapore.
As Singapore celebrates her 47th Year of Independence on 9th August 2012, we appeal urgently to Minister of Manpower, Mr. Tan Chuan Jin and the Singapore government to work towards the ratification of ILO C189 and to show to the world that Singapore will not hesitate to do what is right in the full protection of women domestic workers serving our families and our nation.