MANILA, Philippines - Although an "important reform," Singapore’s
decision to grant foreign domestic workers a mandatory weekly rest day
still "falls short of international standards," an international human
rights watchdog said.
At the same time, the overseas Filipino workers' organization
Migrante urged Middle Eastern countries, where millions of Filipinos are
employed, to follow Singapore's lead and improve working conditions for
domestic workers.
The new Singapore policy, announced on Monday, takes effect only for
new contracts beginning January next year and does "not address the
exclusion of domestic workers from other key labor protections in
Singapore's Employment Act," Human Rights Watch noted in a statement
released Tuesday.
"The Singaporean government's recognition of a weekly rest day as a
basic labor right will make the lives of migrant domestic workers
better," said Nisha Varia, HRW senior women’s rights researcher. "But
this important reform should go into effect this year and apply to all
domestic workers and their current contracts."
The new policy allows employers the option of paying their domestic
workers instead of granting them a rest day should the employee agree.
However, HRW noted that, "Given the imbalance of power between
employers and domestic workers, there is significant risk of abuse that
employers may coerce workers to sign away their day of rest."
She urged the Singapore government to do away with this loophole "and
ensure that domestic workers will actually get at least a minimum
number of rest days."
There are an estimated 206,000 foreign domestic workers in Singapore,
some 65,000 of them Filipinos, the rest mostly from Indonesia, Sri
Lanka and India.
Notwithstanding a number of reforms introduced recently, HRW said
Singapore's labor protections "still lag behind those of other
migrant-receiving countries," including Hong Kong.
It also noted that Singapore was "one of only nine countries that did
not support adoption" of the International Labor Organization's
Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.
Among others, the convention requires governments to provide domestic
workers with labor protections equivalent to those of other workers,
including for working hours, minimum wage coverage, overtime
compensation, daily and weekly rest periods, social security, and
maternity protection.
Meanwhile, Migrante said Singapore's new policy poses a challenge to
Middle Eastern countries where there are some 25 million domestic
workers, mostly from Asian countries.
John Leonard Monterona, an OFW based in Saudi Arabia who is
Migrante’s Middle East coordinator, noted that most of the Gulf
Cooperating Council (GCC) member-countries "have reservations in
recognizing domestic workers’ alienable rights as a worker and a human
being citing 'customary practices and traditions.'"
"Kuwait, for example, opposes the granting of day-offs and the
internationally prescribed eight-hour work (day) of domestic workers,"
Monterona said. "It has been known that other GCC countries and non-GCC
governments also cited 'preserving tradition and modesty of maids' as
reasons to restrict domestic workers freedom of movement and giving them
day-offs, among others."
source: http://www.interaksyon.com/article/26122/singapore-rest-day-for-maids-still-behind-international-standards---human-rights-watch
