By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter

The Philippine government has expressed optimism that Qatar will soon pass its “Domestic Workers Protection law” that will further protect household service workers (HSWs).
“They also mentioned earlier that the Domestic Workers Protection law is nearing approval,” said Attorney Hans Cacdac, administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
The POEA senior official visited Doha last week to attend the second Qatar-Philippines Joint Labour Committee meeting. He was joined by Ambassador Crescente Relacion and labour attaché Leopoldo De Jesus.
Cacdac stressed that they will be closely watching the law’s approval as the Qatar’s Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare promised to provide them with updates.
POEA is also encouraging the ministry to be “more involved” in the protection of household service workers.
Cacdac made it clear that they are not pushing the Qatari side to “enact a law in terms of further protecting HSWs” since this category of workers is not covered by Qatar’s labour laws.
“It is more of providing them with documents to have an agreement on how to best treat Filipino HSWs,” he noted. “Once an agreement is signed, this will be the law that will be implemented between the two countries as far as the HSWs are concerned.”
Citing that Qatar had been working hard to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) including HSWs, Cacdac said the Philippine government hopes that HSWs will soon be covered by the country’s labour laws just like in other GCC countries.
At the meeting, he was told that the Ministry of Labour has some involvement in terms of approving contracts and resolving a number of issues and disputes.
A mechanism to receive complaints from HSWs seemed to be in effect at the Ministry, according to Cacdac. He was also told that the embassy and the labour attaché can directly endorse and refer Filipino HSWs who need help to the ministry.
“Also, looking into dispute settlement how we can best resolve disputes involving OFWs with the clear participation of the embassy and the labour attaché,” he added.
About the minimum salary of household service workers, the official said the issue was not raised since the Philippine government maintained its stand that the $400 monthly pay was non-negotiable.
Of the 188,000 OFWs in Qatar, Ambassador Relacion noted that about 15% (more than  28,000) are HSWs.
The Philippine government also received a positive response from Qatar’s Ministry of Labour to further enhance the protection of OFWs welfare in the country.
Cacdac noted that some of the issues tackled during the discussion focused on transparency in the process of recruiting Filipino workers and ethical practices through regulation of recruitment costs and placement fees.
The Joint Committee meeting between the two countries, pursuant to the agreement in 2008, picks up from the 1997 original bilateral labour agreement.