Senator Raffy Tulfo slammed the very low compliance of Social Security System (SSS), the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG for the coverage of kasambahays.
Based on a 2019 joint survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), there are 1.4 million registered domestic workers.
Of these, only 6% or 84,190 kasambahays were enrolled by their employers in SSS while only 5% or 74, 858 were registered by same in PhilHealth. Worse, there were only 3.4% or 51, 579 house helps enrolled by their employers in Pag-IBIG.
This very low compliance irked Tulfo.
The vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Labor stressed that these agencies are not doing enough to ensure that employers in the country have registered and have been paying the SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG contributions of their kasambahays.
“Some employers are too busy to enroll their house help for said coverage or deliberately avoid doing so to avoid payments.”
The legislator was also upset due to the failure of barangays to implement the registration system for kasambahays, knowing that some employers are too busy to enroll their house help for said coverage or deliberately avoid doing so to avoid payments.
The Punong Barangay shall be responsible for the Registry of kasambahay within his/her jurisdiction.
Notably, under the “Domestic Workers Act” or “Batas Kasambahay,” every employer shall register a house help under his/her employment in the barangay where his/her residence is located. The Punong Barangay shall be responsible for the Registry of kasambahay within his/her jurisdiction.
The senator questioned why barangay officials managed to be very active on house-to-house campaigns during elections period but were unable to go door-to-door to survey households with kasambahays and ensure implementation of Batas Kasambahay.
Moreover, he also recommended removing the qualified theft punishment for kasambahays, which is being used by employers to pin down house helps seeking better treatment or complaining about work-related benefits.
In some cases, Tulfo said employers would get back at their kasambahays and avoid giving them proper treatment as mandated by the law by planting evidence pointing to a crime they did not commit, like stealing.
Employers would later report it to the police to send innocent and voiceless kasambahays to jail.
