PH-Kuwait ink accord on HSW employment

DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah sign the “Agreement on the Employment of Domestic Workers” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kuwait. (Photo courtesy of DFA-Office of Public Diplomacy/PNA)

MANILA– The Philippine and Kuwaiti governments on Friday afternoon (Kuwait time) finally signed the “Agreement on the Employment of Domestic Workers” at the Kuwait Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah signed the document on behalf of the two states.

Also present at the signing were Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello, Special Envoy Abdullah Mama-o, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Charges d’affaires Noordin Lomondot, other officials from the Philippine government and their Kuwaiti counterparts.

Earlier, Bello said the memorandum of agreement (MOA) contains a contract of employment template where the provisions “particularly stated” by President Rodrigo R. Duterte are enumerated.

The provisions include requiring workers’ passports to be deposited at the Philippine Embassy and not to the employers; the allotment of at least one day off for workers every week; giving workers at least seven hours sleep a day; and providing the workers with communication lines, decent meals and sleeping quarters.

Bello earlier said that once the MOA was signed, they will consider the partial lifting of deployment ban on overseas Filipino workers to Kuwait, and limit it to household service workers.

The partial lifting will allow the deployment of skilled workers and professionals to the Gulf state.

However, the signing is not yet final and agreed on since the government will need to see the implementation and “immediate effect” of MOA first, Bello said.