Good Afternoon…..

The aim of the ILO is Decent Work, that is to work in freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Guided by the ILO on the Declaration of the Principles and Rights at Work by which all member countries of the ILO share a commitment to this by virtue of their membership, this therefore, sets the floor below which no worker should fall.

In the Philippines, government, employers and workers have identified challenges and deficits for realizing DW. The DWCP, launched almost two years ago, noted the need to address workers’ rights and protection, highlighting the vulnerability of domestic workers and the need to fully apply to them the general law on contracts of employment. On migrant labor, the country programme noted that migrants were increasingly female, and that some find themselves in situations akin to forced labor.

The concern on the plight of domestic workers in the country is evidenced by the varied programmes implemented by government and non-government institutions. Despite of these, we do feel that these are not enough as it is necessary to do further sustainable, strategic interventions. However, the ILO can build on these programmes through employment promotion, gender equality, child labour, protection of migrant workers, and other areas which impact on the lives of domestic workers. At the same time, the ILO can promote stronger and more visible responses from the tripartite partners through national and international initiatives.

Today, we invited you here to discuss and provide inputs into a new program on the protection of domestic workers from forced labor and trafficking in Southeast Asia. This project is a response to further action. The focus of this program is on domestic workers because, although most domestic workers have decent work situations, as a group, they are more likely than many other groups to face Decent Work deficits and to fall below the floor of fundamental principles and rights.

The Project aims to address the concerns of domestic workers in Indonesia and the Philippines through an integrated programme of law and policy, capacity building, organization and self-representation and targeted interventions.

It has been a very productive interaction and I would like to extend my appreciation and thanks to all our participants and guests for sharing their time, knowledge and experiences. We value your inputs and suggestions as these validate as well as enrich the findings in the situational analysis and the interventions defined under the proposed strategy for action. Further, your contributions have helped us gather information and identify the possibilities for developing effective and relevant set of interventions here and abroad for improving the situation of domestic workers.

We are also grateful to our consultant, Ms Nicole Sayres for preparing a comprehensive situational analysis; to the Project CTA, Ms. Lotte Kejser (based in Indonesia) and Ms. Asha D' Souza (from ILO HQ) and our Senior Specialist Ms. Naomi Cassirer for their technical presentations and interventions; and our thanks especially to our Secretariat headed by Ms. Hilda Tidalgo (with Rose, Roselle, Alice and Oyi) for ensuring that all requirements for this workshop are in place.

Where do we go from here? Our next steps will be to revise our situational analyses, taking into account your comments, and to start to work to develop a solid workplan integrating your recommendations. We at the ILO, are quite pleased with your recommendations and would like to take them forward concretely in line with the Project’s objectives. We will share all these with you again in the near future.

Our work and cooperation does not end with this workshop. We have just started implementing our Project and we do hope that we could all meaningfully work together for a coordinated and comprehensive set of responses to better the lives and the working conditions of our Filipino domestic workers.

Maraming salamat po and have a good day!