ABU DHABI // Immigration authorities plan to look into the issue of troubled domestic workers from the Philippines in an attempt to plug loopholes in a recruitment system that allows them to be exploited, the Philippine ambassador to the UAE said yesterday.
Any in-depth solution to the problem of contract substitution would have to involve direct co-operation between governments, getting rid of the middlemen and recruitment agencies, Grace Princesa said. "This would indeed be a step in the right direction in terms of migration and development," she said. Contract substitution happens when a second, inferior, labour contract to the signed original is presented to a worker, either before leaving their home country or after arriving in the UAE.
Fearing their job will evaporate if they point out the discrepancy, and in some cases unable to read the document, the workers sign it. The second document is considered legal, and is submitted to the Ministry of Labour. The ambassador announced plans to seek a meeting with UAE authorities to address the issue in August. That meeting happened on September 19 between Ms Princesa, other Filipino labour and embassy officials and Major Gen Nasser al Minhali, the acting assistant undersecretary for the Abu Dhabi Department of Naturalisation, Residency and Ports Affairs.
During the meeting, immigration officials promised to help speed up the process of sending home more than 100 housemaids who are seeking refuge inside the Filipino Workers Research Centre, a makeshift shelter at the new Philippine Embassy and overseas labour office in the Al Bateen district. "The officials said they would try to speak to the maids' sponsors to resolve the issue," Ms Princesa said.
The women fled their employers' homes after complaining of long working hours, lack of sleep, unpaid salaries and mistreatment. The majority of the women are waiting for their visas to be cancelled and for the retrieval of passports being kept by their employers. Ms Princesa told the immigration officials that of particular concern to the Philippine government is the issue of contract substitution, a situation that affects the majority of household workers in the Emirates.
There are 25,000 household workers living and working in the country, a fraction of the between 500,000 and 600,000 who live and work in the UAE, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas in Manila. However, "90 per cent of the problems are associated with our household workers and it takes up most of our time", Ms Princesa said. The majority of the household workers in the UAE earn $200 (Dh735) per month, half the $400 minimum wage set by the Philippine government, she said. "We do not have the data on contract substitution, but it seems to be a prevalent practice," she said.
Nasser Munder, the Filipino labour attaché in Abu Dhabi who was also at the meeting, said the UAE authorities are "aware of the problem. At the moment, the federal immigration authorities do not wish to interfere because they said the parties involved - the worker and the sponsor - were the ones who decide and agree on the monthly wage". But the federal immigration authorities are committed to providing a long-term solution to the situation through some sort of government-to-government set-up, he said.
"A worker shouldn't leave the Philippines without a contract that indicates his or her salary," he said. "In the case of household workers, they should hand over their contracts to their sponsors which in turn are filed with the immigration department." Mr Munder reminded Filipinos that they could not be forced to sign a new contract and to consult the Philippine overseas labour office if someone was attempting to do so.
"While contract substitution appears to be the norm for household workers, sadly, [only] a few of them complain because they are aware from the very start that they would receive less than $400," he said.
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The bio
Academics: Phd in strategic management in University of Wales
Number one caps: His best-seller caps are in shades of grey, blue, black and yellow
Reading: Is immersed in books on colours to understand more about the usage of different shades
Sport: Started playing polo two years ago. Helps him relax, plus he enjoys the speed and focus
Cars: Loves exotic cars and currently drives a Bentley Bentayga
Holiday: Favourite travel destinations are London and St Tropez
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
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Employment lawyer Meriel Schindler of Withers Worldwide shares her tips on achieving equal pay
Do your homework
Make sure that you are being offered a fair salary. There is lots of industry data available, and you can always talk to people who have come out of the organisation. Where I see people coming a cropper is where they haven’t done their homework.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
It’s quite standard to negotiate if you think an offer is on the low side. The job is unlikely to be withdrawn if you ask for money, and if that did happen I’d question whether you want to work for an employer who is so hypersensitive.
Know your worth
Women tend to be a bit more reticent to talk about their achievements. In my experience they need to have more confidence in their own abilities – men will big up what they’ve done to get a pay rise, and to compete women need to turn up the volume.
Work together
If you suspect men in your organisation are being paid more, look your boss in the eye and say, “I want you to assure me that I’m paid equivalent to my peers”. If you’re not getting a straight answer, talk to your peer group and consider taking direct action to fix inequality.
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