Golden eggs from
domestic helpers

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

While local labor groups are agitating for wage increases here, particularly the adoption of the proposed legislated hike of P125 that industry and business leaders are vehemently protesting against, there is another group of workers who are rallying against the raise in pay that the government is trying to procure for them.

A big group of these workers, known as domestic helpers or, crudely, maids, now working, or hoping to get jobs abroad, have recently picketed the office of the Department of Labor to air their objection to the plan to require foreign employers to pay them no less than $400 a month.

It is not surprising that government officials, particularly those in the Labor and Finance departments, are anxious to get higher wages for our domestic helpers in other countries. Only yesterday, for instance, the business pages carried exultant reports about Filipino overseas workers having brought in about $1.14 billion in remittances, that should translate to more than P50 billion in pesos. That, plus the billions also bled out of everyone of us through the imposition of the abominable Expanded Value-Added Tax, or E-VAT, has certainly give this administration a lot of shopping money.

But the rallying "DH" have a point. They realize that work will become more difficult for them to come by at the hiked rate government is demanding because few will then be able to afford them. They also cited the fact that their counterparts from other impoverished countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand and even Russia are willing to accept as little as $150, and the competition is increasing.

The Labor Department will therefore do well to review this new scheme. OFWs, especially maids, may be bringing in a lot of money, but forcing the wage increase to as much as $400 could backfire, you see. Like the man who killed his goose to get more golden eggs, we may find ourselves with only a dead goose, and no more golden eggs.*