life of domestic worker and his dream

Hello. Today we interviewed a domestic worker in the Philippines. But before the interview, let’s understand the reality of domestic workers in the Philippines. I hope this article stimulates you. See you!

Table of Contents

What is a Domestic worker?

Their job is to work for private households. They usually help to do housework such as cooking,

cleaning, driving family members and so on. Domestic workers have various types. For example, some workers are hired from a single household, and a service provider hires some of them so they have multiple houses to work for. According to the ILO (2021) estimates, there are 75.6 million houseworkers around the world, but 76％ of them are women. Although there are a lot of houses in which men are doing housework these days, domestic work is a common job for women.

Problems of domestic worker

Not making a proper contract

　There are a lot of contracts that householders have to make between domestic workers. For example, the minimum wage is from PHP 3,500 to PHP 5,000 per month, and children under 15 cannot work as a domestic worker in the Philippines. But 81 ％ of domestic workers don’t have a proper contract with their host. Also, there are children domestic workers in the Philippines. Look at this graph. 43.4 ％ of child labourers are working in the service industry and this includes work such as domestic work.

Very low wage

　Even though their work is demanding and essential to people’s lives, their average wage is only 56％ of the average wage of other employees. So for example in the Philippines, they only get PHP10,316 per month. This is 185＄.

Isolated in a private house

　Especially if the domestic worker is a live-in houseworker for a private house, some workers will be isolated because of the working environment and they are difficult to find from outside of the house, so nobody from out will find them and help.

Abuse, Harassment

　According to the International Domestic Workers” Federation, some domestic workers face multiple forms of violence: physical abuse, intimidation, threats, bullying, sexual assault, harassment, being provided poor-quality food and a lack of privacy. Severe instances of violence, including murder, have been documented.”However because live-in workers are isolated, it is difficult to find out those incidents.

Interview

　I’m Ryoma. I interviewed a live-in domestic worker in the Philippines. There is a lot of difficulty in working as a domestic worker, especially when it is live-in working for a private household. Also, he is a minority working as a domestic worker as a man. But why is he working for it?(He couldn’t speak English so we translated our interview)

Who are you?

My name is Toto. I am working as a private domestic worker in Cagayan de Oro. My job is to maintain the house. Washing clothes, cooking and so on. It is very hard, but I also feel satisfied because I can learn how to maintain a house, so I can do my housework in future when I have my own family. Also, this work will connect to the dream I have right now.

About his dream

T: My dream is to be a soldier in the Philippine military. I want to join the mountain military unit. We usually work to help people thrive in the mountains. The mountains in the Philippines are kind of anarchic, and there are a lot of incidents there. So we need to maintain order and secure the safety of people living in the towns.

But to achieve the dream, I have to work here as a domestic worker because I didnt go to any school. The head of this household is a retired military officer, so working here is kind of like an enrollment test.

I want to be a soldier to help maintain this country. I want to help my family get out of poverty.

About his family

My family is a farmer far away from here. They make rice and corn. Farming is a very hard job to finish but the wages are very low and they don’t have the job throughout the year(they cannot grow crops when it is too dry, rainy season or when natural disasters come). But I was able to come here and work as a domestic worker because my uncle is a military soldier and he thought my situation pitiful, so he introduced me to this job and gave me an opportunity for it. In my village, living as a farmer and dying there without going anywhere is the typical life. So I am very happy for my situation.