QUEZON CITY, Nov. 23 (PIA)--A labor official expressed hope that President Benigno S. Aquino III will sign into law the final enrolled version of the Kasambahay Bill next week.

“It will be the most fitting, early Christmas gift the Congress and the President of the Philippines can give to our domestic workers,” Labor & Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said in a statement.

Earlier this week Congress of the Philippines’s Bicameral Conference Committee approved the joint version of the proposed Kasambahay Bill or Domestic Workers Act.

The Kasambahay Bill, after it is signed into law, will ensure the treatment of household service workers as members of the formal sector and provide them social protection.

When signed into law, the DOLE, in cooperation with other government agencies and its tripartite partners will formulate the implementing rules and regulations of the Domestic Workers Act.

“It will fulfill Philippine obligation to enact a national legislation in compliance with ILO Convention 189 Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers,” Baldoz said.

President Aquino III earlier this year ratified C189 and the Philippine Senate concurred in the ratification on 6 August, thus bringing C189 into global force based on the mandated ratifications by ILO member-states.

C189 represented a victory for decent work in the world, and its ratification highlights the DOLE-led efforts, as chairman of the Committee on Decent Work of the 100th ILO Conference, to have C189 overwhelmingly adopted by the ILO on 16 June 2011. (DOLE/RJB/SDL/PIA-NCR)

Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=231353653026