Committee report on “Domestic Workers Act” submitted to council

THE Committee on Employment, Livelihood and Cooperatives and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), chaired by City Councilor Arthur Allad-iw, submitted to the City Council its recommendation relative to proposed legislative measures previously filed by some members of the august body pertaining to the registration of domestic workers or kasambahay working in the city with their respective barangays.

In its report the said committee noted that Republic Act No. 10361 otherwise known as “An Act Instituting Policies for the Protection and Welfare of Domestic Workers” or “Domestic Workers Act”/”Batas Kasambahay” already provides, particularly in Section 17 of the said law, for the reportorial duty of employers to register their domestic workers or Kasambahays in the Registry of Domestic Workers of the barangay where the employer’s residence is located. Relative to the above national law the committee further observed that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has issued Memorandum Circular No. 2013-61 with further addendum contained in Memorandum Circular 2017-33 dated February 15, 2017 which provided for the guidelines to be followed in the implementation of the said law in the barangay registration of kasambahays pursuant to Republic Act No. 10361.

Under DILG MC No. 2013-61 particularly part IV thereof it states that, “All City or Municipal Mayors and Punong Barangays are enjoined to initiate the conduct of the registration of all Kasambahay within their juris- dictions and to require every employer to register his or her domestic workers under his or her employment in the Kasambahay Masterlist (Registry of the Domestic Workers) in the barangay where the employer's residence is located. The Punong Barangay shall devise a system to ensure the registration of all Kasambahay in his or her barangay including an on-line registration through the barangay's official website or email”.

Likewise in DILG MC No. 2017-33 which sought to improve the implementation and monitoring of the Barangay Kasambahay Registration, it encouraged all Punong Barangays to enact local ordinances in support of the Batas Kasambahay in order to fully implement the said barangay registration of kasamabahays within their respective areas of jurisdiction and for the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) to submit a monthly consolidated report using the Kasambahay Registration (KR) Form 4 to the DILG and furnishing a copy to the District DOLE, SSS, PagIbig and PhilHealth.

With the above the Committee on Employment, Livelihood and Cooperatives and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) then recommended instead for the approval of a proposed resolution, after due consideration of the previously filed proposed ordinances dealing on the matter, seeking to encourage the 128 barangays in the City of Baguio to enact measures for the observance and implementation of Republic Act No. 10361 otherwise known as the “Domestic Workers Act” and DILG Memoranda Circulars No. 2013-61 and 2017-33.