Six Lives, One Struggle

SIX LIVES, E L G G U R T S E N O

In 2022, I went to Malaysia for research work, focusing on Filipino migrant workers, despite not knowing anyone from my home country. However, Filipinos are generally warm and generous, and it didn’t take long before I was welcomed into a migrant Filipino community in Malaysia. Mostart by:Filipino antipas delotavo workers I encountered were domestic helpers and caregivers, while some were factory workers, call center agents, or professionals like NGO workers.

MIGRANT STORIES #2 The lives and struggles of Filipina domestic helpers in Malaysia These workers, predominantly women aged 35-45 with children back home, shared that they left the Philippines due to the lack of well-paying jobs necessary to support their families and educate their children. Their stories resonated deeply with me as my mother worked away in Saudi Arabia for 25 years. Disturbingly, a 2023 ILO study titled “Skilled to care, forced to work?” revealed that a third of migrant domestic helpers in Malaysia work under forced labor conditions, with Malaysia having 29% of surveyed workers in such conditions, compared to 9% in Singapore and 7% in Thailand. These findings were confirmed by the stories of Filipina domestic helpers I met over the past two years.

nikkei asia

aware.org

Photo by KJ Rosal

*All names are pseudonyms and personal information are concealed to protect the identity of interviewees.

es

Edition #2

May 2024

MIGRANT STORIES

CONDITIONS OF FORCED LABOR

“SKILLED TO CARE, FORCED TO WORK?” I met Rose* by chance, as I was scouring the market for souvenirs to take back home. She works as a saleslady at a market in a big city in Malaysia.

The ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) defined forced labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself [or herself] voluntarily”.

She earns extra through commissions, and work was not too bad. But a couple of years before, she had a harrowing experience as a domestic helper.

In Malaysia, the survey results indicate high levels of isolation and restriction on migrant domestic workers’ freedoms, including freedom of movement and freedom to change employer.

THE BACKSTORY “My employer required me to iron clothes first, then wash the cars. There were five cars in the household.

This was my work for 2-3 weeks. I wasn’t able to take it, I had palpitations and I got sick...

esquiremag.ph

I decided to run-away, together with another Filipina domestic worker in the same house. I tried to find work and had odd-jobs here and there. But after a while, I got arrested. In the end, I was returned to my employer, where I worked to pay back what was paid to the police”

Edition #2

May 2024

LONG HOURS, DENIAL OF REST DAYS AND BEING MADE TO WORK OUTSIDE THE EMPLOYERS’ RESIDENCE Kamia* used to be a factory worker back in the Philippines. But pay was low and work was irregular. She went to Malaysia and found work in an establishment where pay was below national minimum wage. She went back home and considered staying for good. But since she’s the family breadwinner, she decided to go back to Malaysia and look for other employment. She’s now working as domestic helper to a family. Domestic workers like Kamia, even if they are documented, are precluded from enjoying the right to minimum wage, social security or any other rights granted under Malaysian labour laws. Domestic workers’ rights are not recognized by the Employment Act of 1955, which intended to protect them. As a matter of fact, they are classified as servants, maids and helpers which are excluded from key protections legally granted to other workers.

NO SOCIAL MOBILITY Kamia and Briar currently enjoy good working relations with their employers. Relationships of trust that they themselves built through the years of hard and valuable work. But it cannot be denied that because they are domestic helpers, they have less in law and do not get the rights and freedoms due to workers like them. They are more vulnerable to abuse such as long hours of work, denial of days-off or rest days, and working outside the confines of their employers’ residence. Though they earn a little above the minimum wage of Malaysia (RM 1,500 since 2022), this cannot compensate for the lack of rights and freedoms as workers.

“The hours I work inside the house is quite longer than other places, where work is fixed at 8 hours a day. That’s the negative side of housework.” Kamia narrated.

VIOLATION OF INT’L LAW Another domestic helpers, Gia and Dahlia, also have issues with rest days or days-off, as well as working outside the confines of the employers’ residences.

Dahlia narrated that: “I was 31 years old when I arrived in Malaysia. I have been working with my employers for 8 years now. They are kind and work is relaxed. But the down side is that my day-off is only once a month, because my employers bring me to their friends, and sometimes I also work for their friends, though with pay. But this is risky because it is prohibited.”

Despite the lack of days-off and risk involved in working in other houses, Dahlia and other domestic workers continue working under difficult and risky circumstances to keep their jobs. Gia, another domestic worker, has a similar story.

“I went to Malaysia in 2014, and I have been with my current employers for 9 years. They paid for my travel and work documents, I didn’t spend for anything. So I did everything to gain their trust. At first, I had no day-off. But when they saw the quality of my work and how I take care of their kids, I was endeared to them. My employers used to have a factory. They take me there to work, and I used to move and lift heavy boxes of products. But then I got sick, maybe from all those heavy lifting. They paid for my medication and didn’t force me to work after that,” Gia claimed.

LISTEN TO THE STORIES OF FILIPINO MIGRANT WORKERS

Edition #2

Domestic helpers are skilled workers doing precarious work

S T O R I E S

F R O M

May 2024

L I L A C

“I finished a Physical Therapy course in my hometown in the Philippines. But then, I didn’t get to practice as a therapist. My first job was in the assembly line of a big electronics factory in the south of Manila. I worked there for a few years. When I got married, I stopped working to raise my family. But my husband died early and I have to be a solo parent to my kids, so I returned to work. This time, I worked in another electronics factory, doing the same thing: working the assembly line. I was so good at my work that I became Line Leader, then Planner, and then Assistant Foreman,” Lilac narrated.

Unplanned Migration to Malaysia

Unfair Pay and Discrimination

Lilac* was one of the first Filipino compatriots I met in Malaysia. She has a very friendly and warm personality, and people tend to gravitate towards her, as I did. Later, as I got to know her, I realized that Lilac is a highly-skilled worker, with sufficient academic background and work experience that belies the notion that domestic helpers are unskilled workers.

“I work as a stay-out or free lance domestic helper and cleaner. I’m in control of my hours of work and I can choose who I work for. As I’m paid per hour of work, I earn more than the domestic helpers who live with their employers or stay-in, but then I also have more expenses than they do. I pay for my own rent, utilities, transportation and food. I pay for and process my own visa and work permit which costs around RM 7,000 to 10,000 for the first year, though lesser in succeeding years. If I get sick, my medical expenses comes out of my own pocket. That’s why I have to work doubly hard to be able to pay for my upkeep and to send money back home. I may have more freedom than the stay-in domestic helpers, but my situation is more risky and precarious than theirs,” she disclosed.

Lilac did not plan on working abroad. But a friend who she thought was applying for work abroad asked her to tag along.

Little did she know that she’d be the one to successfully apply and find work in Malaysia. But despite Lilac’s skills, she works precariously as domestic helper in Malaysia.

CNA

For Lilac and most migrant domestic workers, the precariousness of work is a matter of fact or a given in their line of work. They face it everyday and they’re used to it. It is either this or they go back home, which is unthinkable because there are no decent-paying jobs back home.

Let’s act against migrant exploitation! Serbisyo at proteksyon sa mga migranteng manggagawa!

Edition #2

May 2024

MIGRANT STORIES

FES Asia

WELCOME TO OUR

MIGRANT STORIES #2 Six Lives, One Struggle: the stories of domestic helpers in Malaysia

Six people’s dreams are the dreams of all migrant workers like them: to come home and spend the rest of their days with their families. But for now, for Lilac and other migrant Filipino workers, it is still the time for work and struggle.

References: 1. ILO 2023, “Skilled to care, Forced to work?”, retrieved 04/24/2024. Link: https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@asia/@robangkok/documents/publication/wcms_885139.pdf 2. The Passport Act 1966, retrieved 04/25/2024. Link: https://www.lawyerment.com/library/legislation/acts/1966/150/section/page-2.html 3. The Sun, 22/09/2023, “Illegal for employers to retain staff passports”. Retrieved 04/25/2024. Link: https://thesun.my/local_news/illegal-for-employers-to-retain-staff-passports-AH11523344