DOLE holds consultation on “Batas Kasambahay” IRR and press briefing

By: Bennie A. Recebido

SORSOGON CITY, April 16 (PIA) – With the passage of Republic Act No. 10361, otherwise known as “Domestic Workers Act” or “Batas Kasambahay” and the formulation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is conducting today a consultation and press briefing at Mango Grill, this city.

DOLE Bicol Regional Director Nathaniel V. Lacambra said that the consultation and press briefing is a region-wide activity that would increase the level of awareness among the participants on the salient provisions of the law. “Likewise, we would like to solicit inputs, comments, and recommendations from the various stakeholders present in the activity,” he added.

Invited participants are from the different tri-media outlets in Sorsogon as well as representatives from government national agencies – the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Information Agency (PIA) – and the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) and other stakeholders.

Republic Act 10361 is an act instituting policies for the protection and welfare of domestic workers. It is a landmark piece of labor and social legislation that recognizes for the first time domestic workers as similar to those in the formal sector, strengthening, respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights and welfare of domestic workers or the “kasambahay’.

It was signed by President Benigno S. Aquino III on January 18, 2013.

For its effective implementation, the law provides for the formulation of an IRR within 90 days after the law takes effect. The IRR shall take effect 15 days after its official issuance.

It can be recalled that President Aquino in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2010, called for a legislation to benefit household workers.

Bills were immediately filed in both houses of Congress which resulted in the approval of consolidated Senate Bill No. 78 in 2011 and House Bill No. 6144 in 2012. It took only two years for both bills to pass Congress through the leadership of Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada and Representative Emil L. Ong. The “Batas Kasambahay” was also referred to as the “Estrada-Ong Law”. (BARecebido, PIA Sorsogon)