Bank statement condition for Filipino HSWs faces hurdles

Saudi employers are still required to submit the financial statements of their Filipino housemaids every three months to the Philippine labor offices in the Kingdom, according to a source at the Philippine Overseas Labor Employment Administration (POEA) in Manila.
These comments come on the heels of a report in an Arabic daily newspaper, stating that the recruitment committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) has rejected some of the terms and conditions of the Philippine government on the recruitment of Filipino housemaids.
The committee had written to the National Recruitment Committee (NRC), inquiring about a letter sent by the Philippine Consulate regarding its request for the provision of financial statements of housemaids every three months.
The committee members, the daily reported, stressed the difficulty of meeting this condition and inability of employers to regularly provide this information.
The source said, however, that the recruitment of Filipino housemaids had been stopped before over the non-payment of salaries.
“It is for this reason that under the standard employment contract for household service workers, Saudi employers are required to open a bank account for each of them," the source added.
He said that housemaids can submit the bank statements themselves to a Philippine labor office or through the recruiting agent.
“Saudi employers can also do this by sending their own representatives to show (details of) the bank accounts of Filipino housemaids to the Philippine labor agencies such as the Philippine overseas labor offices in Jeddah, Riyadh and Alkhobar,” he added.