ACTS OFW party-list calls for ‘live-out’ arrangement for Filipino domestic workers

A party-list working to protect overseas Filipino workers’ rights on Sunday called on the Philippine government to push for a “live-out” arrangement for overseas Filipino domestic workers to spare them from potential abuse by their employers.

In a statement, ACTS OFW party-list spokesperson Francisco Aguilar Jr. said that many Filipino domestic workers abroad, especially in the Middle East, are vulnerable to abuse because they live with their employers.

“To counteract this vulnerability, we have to encourage live out schemes for our domestic workers once they have completed their job shift,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar also pointed out that if domestic workers do not stay with their employers, they would be able to enjoy adequate rest and sleep as well as more privacy.

Japan, for example, agreed to import Filipino “professional housekeepers” employed by a Japanese staffing company, Aguilar said.

“The staffing firm assigns the professional housekeepers to individual Japanese homes, and then pulls the workers out after their eight-hour shift,” he added.

The staffing agency also provides and pays for the live-out arrangement, Aguilar said.

ACTS OFW call for live out plans came on the heels of the death of 44-year-old Emerita Gannaban, who died of apparent poisoning in Saudi Arabia just last June.

According to her family, Gannaban had complained of being maltreated by her employer, saying that she had been kept inside a bathroom and was not fed.

This article originally appeared on GMA News Online