Applicants who wish to work as housekeepers in Japan must not pay any amount for placement fee.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration made such stern warning in its newly-released guidelines for hiring household service workers in Japan.
“Collection of placement fees from the housekeepers by Employment Agencies, Sending and Specified Organizations for placement of housekeepers is prohibited,” the POEA Governing Board Resolution 08-2016 said.
Likewise, other administrative fees, paid directly or indirectly such as salary deduction arrangements are not allowed.
The only fees housekeepers are required to pay for are their passports, barangay and NBI clearance, preliminary medical examination, Philhealth and Pag-IBIG memberships.
The guidelines come as POEA announced that Filipino workers are now allowed to be deployed in Japan and pilot-tested in the Kanagawa prefecture, including the city of Yokohama.
The POEA said qualified to apply as HSWs are those at least 23 years old, with minimum one year work experience in housekeeping services, and has Tesda National Certificate II (NC II).
There are no specific skills and language training required from the housekeeper in general but can be asked by their respective Japanese employers, who will then shoulder the cost of additional skills and language competency training they shall require.
Upon employment, Filipino housekeepers are hired on full-time basis, with a minimum of five days or 35 hours of work per week, and receive salaries equivalent to those received by their Japanese counterparts.
Housekeepers are then expected to clean households; care and protect children, including picking up and dropping off; perform acts necessary for daily life at home, such as sewing, packing, receiving packages and mails, prepare beddings, gardening, and repair services; and assisting and accompanying senior citizens, except providing physical nursing care services.
