Filipinos are known to be honest, patient, kind, caring, and most importantly hardworking. Possessing these attributes, employers around the world prefer to hire these people as their employees.
Filipinos work in hospitals, offices, and even their homes. Countries in Asia, such as Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates (UAE), hire Filipino domestic helpers to take care of their children and do house hold chores.
For quite a long time, there have been surplus of domestic helpers working in United Arab Emirates. However, nowadays, employers are complaining that they are not only having a hard time finding a nanny for their children, but also spending too much to sponsor one. The worst part is that if they find one, this domestic helper leaves when she finds a better job opportunity that pays a higher wage.
The problem is there too little domestic helpers being able to leave the Philippines. This is because of the recent standard contract set for domestic staff. The agreement used to require employers to permit domestic staff to freely connect with their embassy and their families. Employers are also banned from forcing the employee to extend their contracts without the verification and approval of their embassy. However, the new contract omits these important agreements.
The Philippines strongly disapproves the new standard contract. Thus, there are no letters of verification released, preventing domestic helpers from leaving the Philippines and working in United Arab Emirates. As a result, the number of available housemaids in United Arab Emirates dropped, and this favors the housemaids that are already in UAE.
There are about 50,000 Filipinos working as nannies in Dubai and Northern Emirates alone. With the new contract and the halt of the release of letters of verification, the ability to demand on conditions, such as the salary of these domestic helpers already in the country have increased.
Reports say that there are a few nannies left in UAE and those that are still there demand a higher salary exceeding the legal minimum of 1,500 Dirham a month. An owner of a recruitment agency in Al Ain also reported that she used to bring 70 housemaids a month to UAE. However, after the changes were implemented, she was not able to bring not even one in four months.
The resolution between the stand-off of the two countries regarding the contract renewal seems murky until this very moment. Until this remains, the shortage of the maids will still remain as is and wage demands will still continue to rise.