A consultation among government, domestic workers, and employers failed to achieve a unified position regarding the possible adoption of international work standards for domestic workers.

The Philippines, as a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO), is supposed to choose whether to push for the ratification of a convention or a mere recommendation at the ILO conference in 2010. The ILO has included the rights of domestic workers in its main agenda for the conference.

Among stakeholders who spoke out at the culmination of a two-day summit for domestic workers on Friday, representatives of both the Philippine government and domestic workers favored the adoption of a convention on workers’ rights. Employers, on the other hand, preferred a recommendation.
A convention, as explained by the participants of the summit, is more binding to a state as compared to a recommendation. Member states are obliged to align their national laws and policies with the provisions of a convention when one is ratified. A recommendation, on the other hand, will just serve as a guide for the crafting national laws and policies.

Worker unions and supporting non-government organizations are looking forward to a convention, as this will push legislators to enact pending laws, particularly the long pending Magna Carta for Domestic Workers.

But Romeo Garcia of Employers Confederation of the Philippines said in an earlier summit that while employers see the need to address the issue of domestic workers in the ILO, it should be addressed through a recommendation.

“A recommendation will accommodate more detailed and specific provisions which can be liberally adopted or interpreted by each state to conform with the local situation and circumstances,” he said.
Joey Molina of the Regional Tripartite Industrial Peace Council said that having a recommendation “supports the harmonization of the convention.”

In the regional level, Molina said, “there still are certain consultations to be done.”
Julius Cainglet of the Federation of Free Workers said that though they would want all parties to agree to pushing for a convention, they are trying to be optimistic about the employers’ position.

After all, as Cainglet said, their position is consistent with that of the government.

Department of Labor and Employment Undersecretary Rosalinda Baldoz expressed the department’s support for the crafting of a convention, saying that “it would be best to have a delegation to the convention next year.”

Baldoz said that DOLE is already about to finish the survey questionnaire on local conditions of domestic workers to be given to the ILO before the conference.

Even president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has expressed her support for a convention, saying, “I believe that our domestic workers, whose role has been essential to the success of our economy, should always be protected."

As for the employer’s position, Calinguet said, “we have time to convince them to upgrade their position.”
ILO country director Linda Wirth said she understands the employers’ position, saying that they still have some issues to attend to regarding the matter of domestic workers. Wirth said that employers still are working on issues like working hours, affordability and wages, and that they still have to decide and debate on that. - Newsbreak