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Help! The Filipinas are not coming!"Help! The Filipinas are not coming!" is a cry of despair that might be heard among maid agencies which specialise in placing Filipino domestic workers in Singapore. And all because with effect from 1st March, 2007, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration will not give an exit permit to Filipino women to work abroad as domestic workers! They may only work abroad as Household Service Workers (HSWs) earning a minimum salary of US$400.What does this mean for the 80,000 or so Filipinas domestic workers now in Singapore? Does it mean that they will also be entitled to a salary of US$400. Yes, but only if
But how can an FDW be upgraded to HSW? Will she have to give up her job in Singapore and return to the Philippines to be certified a qualified HSW? And even if she is promoted to HSW, can she persuade the kuripot Singapore employer to employ an HSW although she was previously satisfied with the performance of an FDW at a lower salary? There is hope yet, for those who aspire to be an HSW in Singapore, for ever since the new requirements for first-time FDWs were implemented three years ago, it has been harder and harder to find qualified FDWs from other countries - Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. Meanwhile, the 80,000 Filipino FDWs will be going home as their passport expires. If they want to remain in Singapore, they will have to be promoted to HSWs before the Embassy will issue them a new passport. But the kuripot Singapore employer will not be in a hurry to employ and HSW to replace the FDW who go home. So it seems possible that every year 16,000 Filipino FDWs will go home and be replaced by a Sri Lankan, Indian or Indonesian. But the question is whether over the next 5 years the other 3 sending countries will be able to find 80,000 qualified FDWs to replace the Filipino FDW? If the answer is no, then a shortage will develop. Then the Singapore employer will either have to pay the other nationalities a higher salary (maybe more than USD200). But meanwhile, what will the Filipino FDWs do while they are still in Singapore? They have to prepare themselves for the day when they have to go home with no guarantee that they will be re-hired as HSWs. If they have acquired a marketable skill, they can find alternative employment at home. Or if they have saved enough capital, they can start a small business to generate an income for life. But, of course, going into business is a big risk if you are not prepared. However, there are NGOs which organise course for would-be entrepreneurs. Of course, you have to give up part of your precious off day to go to class. If all else fails, the FDWs can still go an work elsewhere, in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan or Canada where the salary is even higher than the USD400 for HSWs . In Canada, our last deployment Carmen Balistoy receives a salary of CAD1,630, equivalent to USD1,403, or USD1,003 more than the minimum set by POEA! But Carmen is no longer an FDW; she is a proud live-in caregiver in Calgary, Algerta, Canada. You too can be a live-in caregiver in Canada!
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